I am (irrationally) afraid of flying, but I try and counteract it by telling myself, when I get out of the car at the airport, "Phew, that's the dangerous part of the journey over with."

That depends on how far you drive to the airport versus how far your plane trip is.

I'd guess the distance of the flight is not that important, because risk is mostly constant (one take off, one landing).

If you can choose to drive instead of to fly, however...

In fact, shorter flights may carry more risk with the regional pilots that operate them typically having less flying experience and a higher likelihood of suffering from fatigue.

Another mind trick is to tell yourself a few minutes after takeoff that you're now very safe for the entire journey until the landing.

Not sure. Of the four recent crashes that come to mind, two involved landing or takeoff (sfo crash, ny plane that landed in Hudson). Casualties were minimal. The other two (French flight from brazil, upstate ny crash) basically fell out of the sky mid flight. Everybody died.

Not to be a pedant, but the Colgan flight (Buffalo) was on final approach so I'd still consider it landing.

And if he weren't killed travelling he'd be stuck in traffic for 6 hours a day. London traffic.