Barrios Vitales — Bogotá's San Felipe Pilot Cuts Traffic Injuries by Nearly Half

Barrios Vitales ('Vital Neighbourhoods') is Bogota's adaptation of the superblock model, redirecting through-traffic from residential streets onto primary roads while prioritising pedestrians and cyclists. It was launched under Mayor Claudia Lopez as part of a wider '15-minute city' / proximity-urbanism strategy for the district.

Reclaim residential street space for pedestrians and cyclists by identifying and redirecting through-traffic, starting with a first 'vital neighbourhood' pilot.

The first vital neighbourhood, San Felipe (Barrios Unidos locality), converted 1,745 square metres of street space into exclusive pedestrian area, added roughly 1 kilometre of streets for bicycle and skateboard circulation, created 30 safer pedestrian intersections, 5 loading/unloading zones and 72 bicycle parking spaces. Bogota's District Mobility Secretariat worked with the World Bank's transport team, combining mobile-location data (Unacast), traffic data (Mapbox) and real-time congestion reports (Waze) to find that roughly 75% of vehicles clogging some local streets were pure through-traffic with no origin or destination in the neighbourhood.

Bogota reports the San Felipe pilot cut traffic accidents by 46% and increased walking and cycling trips by 5%, directly benefiting around 2,100 residents. The city has since extended the model to a second neighbourhood, Bosa El Porvenir, and plans seven vital neighbourhoods by 2027 and 33 by 2035.

As a flagship programme of one mayoral administration (2020-2023), the initiative's continuation depends on sustained political and budget commitment across subsequent city governments.