Those who proclaim that flying is safer than driving your car are kidding themselves (and their passengers)
If you look at the statistics it is actually flying on the airlines which is the safest mode of transport. Not the sort of flying that we do!
I am a coward when it comes to flying in a SEP and will always try to go the shortest way or if that is not possible certainly the highest possible.
Taking off from Alderney last summer I was given the usual 'not above 1000ft' but after a few minutes they must have got sick of my pestering them for higher so they gave a higher clearance.
A lot of folks get very hung up about 'longer routes' but if you have a look with something like Flitestar and compare some routes you will be surprised the limited time 'lost' by going the long way around.
If you go Wellesbourn -> CLN -> HSD -> EDLV which in total is just 1h58 and compare that to EGBW -> DVR -> MK -> EDLV which is 2h04 or a total of 6 mins extra. And that is in something as mundane as a PA32.
I know what I prefer.
FD