I was amused to see in Heathrow's Terminal 5C (a BA fortress, of course) that there was a prominent Virgin Atlantic advertisement. It showed the interior of their premium Upper Class cabin, with the slogan, "How the other half flies"!. Nice one!

I was equally amused in Terminal E at Boston Logan airport, waiting for my morning BA flight back to London. The area was obviously also used by Virgin Atlantic for their evening flight to Heathrow. The notice directing Virgin's Upper Class and Premium Economy passengers had been moved out of the way - to a convenient location by the entrance to the men's toilets!

Particularly in the United States, the process of ageing - and in particular the reduced ability to drive a car with increasing age - is seen as a major problem. This is because so many people have been car dependent for so long: there is relatively little experieince of use of buses in particular, and public transport in general. This issue has been identified by a number of researchers.

Research was carried out in 2007 to assess the effectiveness of a training programme. This was done at a major retirement complex in California, with a population of around 9000 and a local bus service connecting with a regional service to a subway system.

The training gave people information about the transport options, information sources and how to plan trips. It also included a bus tour of two major bus routes.

The primary transportation mode was identified by survey work before and after training, as was ridership of the local and regional bus network.

The main change in primary transportation mode after training was that car use dropped from 86.9% to 67.2%, and transit use increased from 1.6% to 16.4% (other respondents had reported equal use of both).

After training, use of the local bus remained the same, but use of the regional service increased from 37.7% to 65.6%. This included a significant increase in useage to get to the subway (27.9% to 37.7%).

The barriers to use of public transport usually cited in the literature appeared not to be particularly important - respondents did not think it was unsafe, inaccessible, expensive or unfriendly, and did not think buses were difficult to board or that information was difficult to find.

I found an article in the Summer 2010 issue of the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum interesting. It is entitled, 'Transportation impacts of increased ethanol production: a Kansas case study' by Michael W. Babcock, and is on page 29.

In the 1980s and 1990s, most of the corn produced in Kansas travelled to destinations in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas by road. Some - 15%-20% - went by road to grain elevators then by rail for export or to other states. It was used for livestock feed. Sorghum produced in Kansas was consumed in Kansas (60%), with about 40% going by rail to Texas Gulf ports.

Since 2000, the destinations and mode of transport of the non-ethanol component (77.7% of the total crop) have remained the same, although volumes have changed.There has been a 50% increase in corn production, and a small decrease in the sorghum crop.

In 2008, 22.3% of the corn and sorghum produced in Kansas was sent by road to ethanol plants: 91% of this was converted within 100 miles of the production farm. 60% of the ethanol was exported by rail, especially to California and Texas but with smaller amounts to New Mexico, Arizona, New York and Washington. The rest went by road to Colorado (especially Denver), Oklahoma City, Kansas and Texas.

So there has been a 50% increase in the corn crop: about half of this increase now travels a short distance by road before being sent a longer distance by rail.

Outside one of the exits to Friendship Heights station on the Red Line of Washington DC's metro is a seat set into a low wall. Immediately behind the seat is a notice, 'No loitering'.

Leaving aside the fact that the outside temperature is below zero and there's snow on the ground (and something - not sure what - coming down) I did wonder what you were supposed to do with the seat which didn't constitute loitering!

ACI's 2010 Airport Economics Survey showed the split of airport revenue by source.

7% came from car parking, and 3% from car rental.

11% came from retail, and 2% from food and beverage.

Retail revenue was up 2% on the previous year, and food & beverage 7%.

By contrast, car parking revenue was down 3.5%.

IARO has consistently argued against those who feel that an airport railway will damage their parking revenue, and has good statistics to prove it. These statistics show that space for retail and catering is valuable, and that the value of parking space may be diminishing.

Woking station, south west of London, has a coach link to Heathrow Airport. It also has good train services to much of the south-west quadrant of the south-east of England.

The main departure platforms are numbers 2 and 4: they have fast trains to London, Portsmouth, Southampton and similar places. They also have non-stop trains passing through.

As you would expect, each platform has a yellow line behind which one is expected to wait.

However, at lunchtime on a recent frosty day it was unwise to wait just behind the yellow line. Something - presumably melted frost - was dripping steadily from the roof: the drips were precisely aligned with where people stood to wait!

I saw no evidence of recent work on the roof, so presumably it has been a feature of train travel from Woking for some time.

It is irritating that a train accident or a plane crash will attract columns and columns of newspaper reporting and hours of prime television time, but a car crash has to be very horrific to even hit the local papers.

Perceptions of risk are therefore skewed.

Especially since the reports seem to be endlessly repeated.

In February 2007 there was a spectacular accident at Grayrigg, near Carlisle in the north-west of England. Sadly, one person was killed.

It may be noted that this lady was the last person to have been killed in a train accident in Great Britain - a clear demonstration of the safety of rail.

There was immediate saturation press coverage. As there was when the preliminary, interim and final reports emerged. And when the inquest report was issued. And when a prosecution was announced. And no doubt when the results are published. Again and again, people are being told that railways are unsafe.

And yet ...

In Great Britain, up to about 5 years ago, 10 people died on the roads EACH DAY. That's now down to about 5. But it's a lot. And, of course, it excludes those who prematurely die from asthma related diseases triggered by particulates: much of this pollution comes from road traffic. No-one seems to care. Certainly there's very little in the media. Car crashes just happen!

There is also concern expressed from time to time about radiation from mobile phones and the safety of nuclear power - neither of which has actrually killed anyone yet.

This distortion, I have found, has a name. It is Societal Amplification of Risk Framework - where reaction to risk is misaligned with the quantitative degree of that risk.

Meanwhile, 5 people died on Britain's roads today, just as they did yesterday and the day before. The last person to die in a train accident did so five years ago. Which will hit the headlines soonest?

In order to support exports of high value items (like aircraft), governments sometimes offer financial assistance (oh no, not a subsidy - just financing assistance!) to prospective purchasers.

Both European and US governments have done this, to support (but, of course, not subsidise) exports by Airbus and Boeing. The credits are not available to airlines based in the home countries of manufacture.

The US is currently planning to give Air India assistance towards the purchase of some Boeing aircraft. The airline trade association Airlines for America (A4A) has opposed this. It says that this will allow Air India to fly more and better aircraft between India and the US, to the detriment of US airlines - Delta in particular, it says has suffered from this in the past.

Boeing, of course, assembles aircraft in the US - but A4A says that much of the component manufacture is actually off-shore rather than in the US, so it's not creating US jobs.

Suppose Boeing was not able to offer cheaper prices to Air India - would the competition be less? Or would the airline just buy Airbuses instead? And how much by value of an Airbus comes from the US?

The whole area is very tangled!

I was on a Metropolitan Line train on my way home last night. As it approached King's Cross (at 17:48), there was announcement that there were no Thameslink trains stopping at Farringdon because of signalling problems, so I got out at King's Cross.

The departure indicator in the cross-passage at St. Pancras showed all First Capital Connect (FCC) trains as 'Delayed'. This, of course, is pretty useless. What people want is some idea of how to get to where they want to be. Bear in mind that this line serves both Luton and Gatwick Airports!

The police were at both the FCC and East Midlands Trains (EMT) barriers. Passengers were not being allowed onto the FCC platforms.

The upper level EMT concourse was chaos. Around 18:00, an FCC train left (apparently) full and standing: the police got the barrier staff to keep barriers closed because they said no-one else could get on the train. Did they know commuters?

The next announcement was that the 18:15 was not stopping at Bedford, Luton or Luton Airport. There was no information on what was, only on what was not.

I went across to Kings Cross Suburban station, across the road: on the information front, this was not a lot better.

The indicator at the buffer stops only showed stopping points of the 18:10 departure from platform 10: someone asked and was told to catch the train at platform 11 for Hatfield. The departure indicator two-thirds of the way along the platform confirmed that it was stopping at Hatfield - but who's going two-thirds of the way along the platform to find that out?

It left on time at 18:22, and arrived Hatfield two minutes late. On coming off the footbridge, I was directed to buses on the right to St. Albans.

At 18:49 I was on the top deck of replacement double deck bus (the lower deck was full). It was announced as stopping at St. Albans only.
It left at 18:52, when it was full.

The welcome aboard announcement was vague about trains running north of St. Albans, but said we were stopping at Morrisons (a supermarket to the east of the city) and then the City Station. About half of the passengers got off at Morrisons: there was a slow journey along the rest of Hatfield Road because of traffic.

The driver blew into the mike before using it!

We arrived at City Station at 19:11.

London Underground shone: they saved me a fruitless trip to Farringdon and back.

The arrangements at Hatfield were pretty good. There seemed to be enough buses and people.

Information on the buses was slender.

But at St. Pancras and King's Cross - useless!

Some time ago I drew attention in a blog to a trivial irritation with ticket machines at my local station, operated by First Capital Connect on the Thameslink route (connecting Luton and Gatwick airports).

A station I often buy a ticket to is West Hampstead, a fairly significant interchange for the London Underground and the London Overground. One reason for its popularity is the connection to the Jubilee Line, which serves the Canary Wharf area of Docklands.

This station does not appear on the main list of stations on some of the ticket machines, so you have to select 'Other stations': this takes you to an alphabetic keyboard where you have to type in the name of your destination. As you start typing, a list of likely stations - those whose names begin with the letters you have typed - comes up and you can select from the list rather than typing in the whole name.

On one machine, typing the letter W immediately brings up the name 'W Hampstead' - nice and easy.

On the other machine, typing in W immediately brings up Waddon - a small station in the south west of London, and an unlikely destination from my station. To reach West Hampstead, you have to type in a further 5 characters - 'EST H' - because there are too many stations starting with WEST for West Hampstead to come up on the first screen.

Maybe - just maybe - as a result of that blog, machine 2 was changed to be the same as machine 1.

Today I found that it has changed back again - with the addition of a prettier display, which somehow fails to compensate for the nuisance.

This might seem trivial, but given the sensitivity (or lack thereof) of touch-sensitive screens on cold mornings, entering an additional 5 characters accurately when in a hurry for a train is problematic!

Let us hope that this blog is read, and that it reverts to style 1!

About a year ago I commended the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) for only giving average planned fare increases in their press release, and not maximum increases.

This was criticised in the media, who of course prefer to report on increases up to a large percentage rather than averaging a smaller one.

Why, I argued last year, should ATOC give ammunition to critics of its members?

This year I heard no such criticisms. When average increases were announced, the media followed the press release and reported on, 'an average of 5.9%'. On the day the increase came into effect, the BBC news scouted around and managed to find an increase of 10.6% (or 'nearly 11%', in journalese) - between Crewe and Chester, hardly a prime commuter route. The next highest - which was on a commuter line - was of 7.6%.

So as I said last year, well done ATOC. Especially since this year I saw no criticism of it for acting in the interests of its members rather than those of the media.

The philosophy which assumes that everyone drives, or everyone has a car, is fortunately dying - fortunately, because it's not true!

Moreover, there is talk in the US in particular about designing transit to attract choice riders - people who choose not to drive.

It has long been assumed that the first thing a teenager wants to do when old enough is to pass the driving test. This is no longer true.

Unfortunately it was the case when today's transport planners were learning their craft, so in a sense they are planning for yesterday rather than tomorrow.

A useful corrective is research from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute - a report entitled, 'Recent changes in the age composition of drivers in 15 countries' (published in October 2011).

Among its many gems I have picked out the following.

Seven countries (as well as the US) showed a decline in the percentage of young drivers. These were Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Canada, Japan and South Korea. Seven showed an increase in both old and young drivers: Finland, Israel, Netherlands, Switzerland Spain, Latvia and Poland.

Higher societal wealth, an older population, and higher population in megacities were all factors associated with high licence holding among the young. High internet usage was associated with lower licence holding.

You can access the report on the website of the University of Michigan.