assessing environmental aesthetics of roadside vegetation and scenic beauty of highway landscape: preferences and perception of motorists

this paper discusses the importance of environmental aesthetics and scenic beauty of currentroadside vegetation in the highways, and the necessity for the contribution of users (motorists) preferences inthe integration of scenic beauty of roadside vegetation into its management plans. the results of a questionnairesurvey of motorist’s opinion on the landscape aesthetics and quality of some highways in tehran city arepresented with their analyses. findings of the research indicate the roadside vegetation as the most importantelements of highway scenic beauty for the majority of users. high-rise building, historic or cultural landmarks,farmlands, street lighting and advertisement boards found with lower level of importance to the passengers. astrong positive tendency of respondents found towards variety of vegetation types instead of a uniformcomposition. the most preferred combination of plant types of road were preferred were: trees in thebackground, grass and flowering herbs in the foreground and shrubs in the middle. in our case study, dissatisfactionwith vegetation type and combination was reported lower among those who travelled once or twice a monthor longer, compare to those who travelled the site more frequently in a daily or weekly basis. this indicatesthat for less frequent users the roadside vegetation was reported almost satisfactory, as their personal cognitionof a route is less affected by their prior knowledge. however, the preferences of motorists who used thehighway more frequently, showed a great tendency with planting design patterns of trees in background andshrubs in the foreground.