This paper contrasts the objective safety conditions of the children's route to school with their perception of the safety of their commute in Kampala and Kumasi. While walking would be the ideal mode due its health benefits, children in these cities have to walk on unsafe routes with no sidewalks and crossings few and far between. There is hardly a systematic effort to improve the safety of the school commute and safety interventions around schools are often implemented in an ad hoc manner following complaints from the school or community. The study findings confirm that 69–82% of the children in the selected schools commute by walking for about 19 to 23 min, with 74.6–78.8% having to cross at least one paved road during their commute. Analysis of the objective risk of the routes around selected schools showed them to be unsafe with the absence of sidewalks and low number of crossings of about one crossing per km, contributing to the overall risk rating of the road network around the selected schools. In contrast, 66.5–72% of the children perceived their commute to school as very safe or fairly safe. This should cause transport planners and other decision makers to pause and not only consider the children's views but also understand why they hold those views, to inform how to provide the children and the adults around them the right information, tools and environment to ensure a safe commute.
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