Journey to school, safety and security of school children in Benin City, Nigeria

•Walking accounted for about 2/3 of children mode of transport to school.•Short distance and high cost of transportation were the main reasons why school children walked to school.•School children ranked poor drivers’ behavior as the most important challenge they faced en-route school.•9.7% of the school children were involved in road crashes.•Few school children experienced kidnapping at one time or the other. School children travel forms an important part of the general traffic planning. However, over the years the access needs and transport requirements of the children have been overlooked or neglected. The paper examined the travel characteristics of school children and the challenges they faced en-route school. Both primary and secondary data were used for this work. Using multi-stage sampling, 373 questionnaire were administered to school children in selected secondary schools. The questionnaire were purposely administered in those schools. Secondary data were obtained from relevant organizations. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Walking accounted for more than 65% of the mode of transport to school. The main reasons for walking to school were short distance (32.4%) and high cost of transportation (27.4%). Poor driving was the most important challenge school children face en-route school. In terms of safety and security, out of 56 school children involved in road crashes, 5.4% had dislocation while only 1.6% of the school children had experienced kidnapping at one time or the other. Students’ T-test showed a significant difference (p