This article will guide you on how to create a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks. You can build these surveys in seconds—just generate a conversational survey on Specific and start collecting useful insights right away.
Steps to create a survey for citizens about walkability and sidewalks
If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific.
Tell what survey you want.
Done.
You don't even need to read further. With AI, you get an expert-designed survey, plus, respondents are automatically asked smart follow-up questions to dig out valuable insights. There’s no guesswork or heavy lifting on your end. Try it from scratch with the Specific AI survey generator—just describe your survey’s purpose and let the AI do the work.
Why run a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks?
If you’re wondering whether it’s worth the effort, consider this: about 60% of routes were identified as having uneven sidewalks, directly impacting pedestrian safety and accessibility [1]. That’s not something you want to miss if you’re looking out for your community.
Without citizen surveys, you might completely overlook hazards and barriers that residents face every day.
Missed feedback means you may not address critical improvements—like sidewalk width, lighting, or crosswalk safety.
Communities that ignore walkability and sidewalk issues often lose out on economic opportunities, public health benefits, and quality of life improvements [2].
The importance of citizen recognition surveys is huge. When you engage your community, you get actionable ideas that can boost local business, enhance safety, and create spaces where people love to walk. Skipping these surveys is a fast track to missed problems, unspent budgets, and avoidable injuries.
What makes a good survey on walkability and sidewalks?
Great surveys hinge on clear, unbiased questions that invite honest, detailed feedback. Here’s what we focus on:
Clarity: Simple wording so anyone can understand
Unbiased phrasing: No leading or loaded questions
Conversational tone: Respondents should feel like they’re having a chat, not ticking boxes
Relevance: Focused only on walkability and sidewalks, with questions that reflect local context
Your survey’s success is measured by both the quantity and quality of responses. High participation means the questions are engaging; thoughtful, actionable feedback means the questions are effective.
Bad Practice | Good Practice |
|---|---|
Vague: “Are you happy with sidewalks?” | Specific: “How safe do you feel walking on your local sidewalks?” |
Biased: “Don’t you think the sidewalks are terrible?” | Neutral: “How would you rate the condition of sidewalks in your neighborhood?” |
That’s why conversational surveys—like those you create with Specific—get better results. They spark real, meaningful conversations instead of curt yes/no answers.
What are good question types for a citizen survey about walkability and sidewalks?
Your survey should mix question types to encourage thoughtful yet structured responses, while making it easy for citizens to participate. Let’s break down the core types:
Open-ended questions help you go deep, letting people explain what matters to them and provide context. Use these to uncover issues or suggestions you haven’t thought of. They’re especially powerful when paired with AI follow-ups that clarify or probe for detail. Try these:
“What’s the biggest challenge you face while walking in your neighborhood?”
“If you could improve one thing about the sidewalks in your area, what would it be?”
Single-select multiple-choice questions provide quick structure and make analysis easy. They’re best for factual questions where you need definitive, comparable answers. For example:
How would you rate the overall walkability of your neighborhood?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
NPS (Net Promoter Score) question is a simple, universal way to gauge overall satisfaction. Use it to measure how likely people are to recommend walking in your area to others. For survey creators, generate an NPS survey for citizens about walkability and sidewalks with one click.
On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend walking in your neighborhood to friends or family?
Followup questions to uncover "the why": Open the door for deeper insights by asking a follow-up after a meaningful answer. This helps clarify specifics and turns surface feedback into actionable data. For example:
Why did you rate the sidewalk condition as “poor”?
Can you give a recent example that illustrates your previous answer?
To see more examples and get tips for composing strong survey questions, check out our curated guide on the best questions for citizen surveys about walkability and sidewalks.
What is a conversational survey?
When you think survey, you might picture a long web form—but conversational surveys are totally different. With platforms like Specific, the survey feels like a real-time chat. The AI agent asks, listens, responds, and follows up, just as a human interviewer would. This format makes it easy for anyone—regardless of age or tech skills—to share their honest perspective.
Compared to building surveys manually (lots of copy-pasting, logic setup, and previewing), AI survey generators let you create a professional, context-aware survey by simply describing your needs. The AI handles logic, tone, and effective sequencing—so your survey is ready in seconds and more effective out of the gate.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey (Conversational) |
|---|---|
Time-consuming setup | Ready in seconds with prompt |
Static, impersonal forms | Dynamic chat that adapts in real time |
Manual follow-up | AI generates smart, contextual follow-ups |
Difficult to analyze open-ended responses | AI summarizes and analyzes data instantly |
Why use AI for citizen surveys? Because it’s fast, smart, and genuinely engaging. Survey creators can spend less time building and more time acting on rich insights, while citizens find the feedback process enjoyable. Plus, with Specific’s conversational surveys, both participation and data quality soar. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough of AI survey setup, see our guide on how to create citizen surveys for walkability and sidewalks.
The power of follow-up questions
Conversational surveys unlock their real value with AI-powered follow-up questions. Auto-generated by Specific, these follow-ups clarify confusing answers and gather richer context that static forms always miss. Instead of reaching out by email for details, the AI asks for clarification on the spot—transforming short or unclear replies into actionable feedback with zero delay. Learn more about this feature in our article about automated AI follow-up questions.
Citizen: “Sidewalks are bad.”
AI follow-up: “Can you describe what makes the sidewalks problematic for you? Is it cracks, obstructions, or something else?”
How many followups to ask? In most situations, two or three follow-ups are enough to get full clarity. With Specific, you can set a maximum or let the survey skip to the next question once you’ve got all you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth feels like a real conversation, boosting engagement and trust.
AI survey analysis is straightforward—even when you get dozens of unstructured, text-heavy responses. AI makes sense of it all, summarizes trends, and answers your questions on demand. To learn how easy analysis can be, read how to analyze responses from citizen surveys about walkability and sidewalks.
Follow-up questions aren’t just a nice touch—they’re a game-changer. Try generating a survey and discover the difference yourself.
See this walkability and sidewalks survey example now
Ready to understand what citizens actually need? See how conversational, AI-powered surveys instantly unlock richer insights while making both survey creation and analysis effortless. Create your own survey and experience the new standard for collecting feedback on walkability and sidewalks.