One of the wonderful things about Bogota is that it is a very walkable city. There are sidewalks almost everywhere and in many places there are even separate bike paths. It’s important to remember though that Colombian drivers are fast and loose with the rules of the road. It’s very common for people to run red lights and drive the wrong way down a one-way street. So always look everyway before you cross. There is absolutely no right-of-way for pedestrians.
Something else you might notice is that in some places there are stars painted in the middle of the street. These stars were part of a social marketing campaign designed to encourage people to use pedestrian bridges and crosswalks. Each star marks a place where someone was killed crossing the street. Bigger stars might mean that more than one person was killed. Small stars symbolize children. I believe that this campaign was running in 2005 so many of the stars are no longer freshly painted. When you see stars on the street please be extra careful and consider taking the long way to use the crosswalk or pedestrian overpass.
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