It's got a hint of the exotic about it."Added value: Many schools go on trips to Moscow and St Petersburg.What degrees does it lead to? You can study Russian on its own, or in combination with subjects from business to French. Most degree courses teach the language from scratch, so having the A-level will make life a lot easier in the first year.Will it set you up for a brilliant career? Yes. Russian is a major world language – one of the official languages of the UN. The Ministry of Defence and the Army both employ translators. Retailers such as Bhs and Benetton are expanding into Russia. All the major accountancy firms have offices there.What do the students say? "I found Russian quite easy to learn," says Ellie Evans, 18, who is also studying for A-levels in French and Classics at Colston's Girls' School in Bristol. "We're reading Chekhov's Lady with Lapdog at the moment, which I'm really enjoying It's about an adulterous affair.

In class today, we were discussing moves in Russia to lower the age of consent for marriage to 14."What subjects go with it? Anything.Which awarding bodies offer it? Edexcel.How widely available is it around the country? Fairly widely.c.rudebeck independent.co.uk. Road use has soared by 73 per cent in the past 20 years, official statistics showed yesterday. Petrol prices have increased by 12 per cent, but bus fares have risen by 31 per cent and rail fares by 37 per cent, the Government's Transport Trends study found. "Transport has therefore become more affordable, car use more so than public transport," the report says.The number of people using buses slumped by 21 per cent between 1982 and 2002, although demand has remained stable since 1994 largely because growth in London has outstripped declines elsewhere.Despite the increase in traffic, the number of accidents fell 9 per cent and the number of people killed or seriously hurt by 52 per cent. Rail travel has risen by 36 per cent since the mid-Nineties.. Getting people out of cars and on to public transport will be a tricky psychological game, according to European studies of how people's behaviour is affected by traffic congestion.

"Private car users consistently believe that public transport users are more stressed than they are, and public transport users that car drivers are less stressed," the study found "People use coping strategies to deal with stress. Unfortunately for those wishing to encourage more sustainable transport use, people find it easier to cope with stress when they are in a private car than in a bus."That is because car drivers typically have their own personal "space", and can customise it with their radio, while not having to suffer other people's choices in their immediate environment.If the scheme leads to severe traffic queues, then it might actually make the people on public transport feel better if they are allowed through by schemes such as bus lanes.But coping with inordinate queues that hold up everyone will work against the scheme's intention because the people on buses, and those on more crowded Tubes, will resent those in their own personal space, the study warned. "Coping takes up psychological energy, meaning that public transport users need to use more energy than private car users to maintain a similar level of calm."The key people who have to be wooed are those who have the choice of using either a car or public transport. They "find themselves on the horns of a dilemma when confronted with congestion: whether to take the private car and add to the congestion, but be less stressed, or to take public transport and be more stressed, but decrease congestion. People who can afford to choose typically opt for the private car." And finally, it warns that "pricing alone will not unglue drivers from their private cars".Only if they feel public transport will be less hassle – and benefit them directly – will they acquiesce.. Congestion charging comes into force in central London next month – bringing with it one of the highest-stake experiments in transport planning ever seen. In some parts of the city, the average speed is only three miles an hour.

The roads have become like a supersaturated chemical solution – one "seed", in the form of a crash or a breakdown, can solidify the system in minutes.The introduction of the charge will not only have a local impact. On its success hinge many other things, some at a global level.Locally, Ken Livingstone's campaign to be re-elected as Mayor of London next year will begin just as the scheme is in its teething stage, when experts say there will almost certainly be disruptions.How quickly those are sorted out, and how popular the charge proves, could be crucial to his future. "It's very brave of him to do it at this time," said David Begg, chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport. "We live in an age when politicians don't always do things that might be electorally unpopular.