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Background: The use of mobile phones in the world today is growing rapidly and consequently its related problems in various areas of cultural, social and economical are growing. Objectives: The current research was concerned with aspects of mobile phone use and pedestrian distraction when talking on a mobile device. Patients and Methods: The present survey took place on a university campus. Five objects were placed along the route. Volunteers participating in the study were divided into two groups. The experimental group received phone calls their entire path, while the control group did not receive any phone calls. At the end of the survey, the participants were asked which of these objects were seen along the path. Results: The results revealed that 20% of the answers were correct for the participants in the call condition group, while 74% of the answers were correct for the participants in the no call condition group. Results indicate that there are significant differences between the two groups from the response aspect. Conclusions: The findings of the present study suggest that cell phone usage while walking can decrease the perceptual visual field, make pedestrians less aware of the surroundings and put them at the risk of having an accident, getting injured or death. It is necessary to give pedestrians adequate training in the field of mobile device usage and its possible risks as well as teach them its appropriate use. They should also be taught to put their cell phones away while walking in the street especially when they are crossing a street or at the intersections.

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Cordon pricing is an effective policy to alleviate congestion and manage travel demand in city centres. However, different responses among road users to certain policies are inevitable. This paper presents a study evaluating the possible consequences of cordon and parking pricing on road users with different trip purposes, i.e., workers and non-workers. Different models have been developed and calibrated with data from the central business district of Mashhad, Iran, using revealed and stated preference methods. The analysis of the interviewee responses to the hypothetical situations shows that workers comprise the dominant proportion using each mode of travel to the Mashhad CBD. The commuters were provided with alternative choices, and their preferences were examined using multinomial logit. The results show that the cost-based policy such as parking and cordon pricing is good to reduce congestion as it affects workers, but the impact is more evident for non-workers travelling to the CBD. Furthermore, the model suggests that workers are more likely to shift mode in response to changes in travel time. The model was also developed to obtain different willingness-to-pay measures, which indicate that workers have a greater willingness to pay for parking and cordon pricing than non-workers.

This study attempted to determine people's visual preference for urban landscapes in Malaysia. In an experimental study, 120 students from three departments in Universiti Putra Malaysia rated 4 predictors of preference (Coherence, complexity, legibility and mystery) and a criterion variable (preference) of 24 color slides depicting urban built landscape (UBL) and urban natural landscape (UNL) scenes. The results of this study showed that the mean preference and the four predictor ratings were significantly higher for UNL than UBL and it confirmed the role of urban nature in urban landscapes. Also, the results showed that all the predictors of preference could explain a large amount of variance in preference, except for "legibility" in UBL. "Mystery" and "complexity" are found to be the most influential predictors of preference in both categories. Furthermore, "coherence" in UNL notably predicts more preference than in UBL. However, knowledge about preferences and the characteristics of urban landscapes contributes to the designing of an enjoyable environment by designers or planners, and to the decision makers who manage the landscape settings for their users.