[1] Peñalosa was born in Washington, DC, to Cecilia Londoño and Enrique Penalosa Camargo [es] former Minister of Agriculture and permanent ambassador for Colombia to the UN.

In 2009, Peñalosa was elected president of the board of directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), a non-profit organization headquartered in New York.

In 1991, he decided to run for mayor of Bogotá with the same tactics he had used to gain his seat in Congress, without the support of any politicians, just by face-to-face contact while touring the city walking, biking or riding on public transportation.

[6] It is promoted as being "the story of two charismatic mayors, Antanas Mockus and Enrique Peñalosa who, with unorthodox methods, in less than 10 years turned one of the world's most dangerous, violent and corrupt capitals into a model city.

Mockus and Peñalosa along with key members of their staff as first hand witnesses, the film uncovers the ideas, philosophies and strategies that underlie the changes in Bogotá and which are now being exported to cities worldwide".

As public infrastructure projects started to progress, his popularity increased very significantly, such that by the end of his term his approval ratings were some of the highest of any Bogotá mayor in recorded history.

He also faced problems when he installed bollards along some avenues in highly congested sectors to prevent cars from parking on the sidewalk in front of the buildings and shops.

Peñalosa also lost popularity, but improved the city's mobility, by introducing the Pico y Placa, a restriction on the rush hour circulation of private vehicles.

The legal property documents weren't edited either, which meant that whoever owned the house in front of the sidewalk where the Cicloruta was built, was its actual owner and had to pay taxes on it.

Although he was a possible candidate for the 2010 Colombian presidential election and led the Por el Pais que Queremos Foundation (PPQ), Spanish for "For the Country we Want", he chose to run again for mayor in 2007.

Peñalosa was the first center-right candidate to be elected as mayor after 12 years of leftist populist politicians in office, with Luis Eduardo Garzon (2004–2007), Samuel Moreno Rojas (2008–2011) and Gustavo Petro (2012–2015).

His principal policy proposals in his second administration include the construction of Bogota's first rapid transit line, to be complemented by several new BRT corridors following Transmilenio's early 2000 plan - including in landmark avenues such as 7th, 68th and Boyacá Avenues; the construction of 30 public schools and 6 public hospitals; the implementation of 1,500 surveillance cameras to prevent petty crime; the construction of large highways and avenues such as Avenida Longitudinal de Occidente and Tintal-Alsacia-Constitución; selling all public participation in Empresa de Telefonos de Bogotá (ETB); and the expansion of Bogotá's metropolitan area in its northern edges, in areas currently occupied by the Thomas Van Der Hammen natural reserve.

On 27 October 2019, Claudia López Hernández, a member of the Green Alliance Party, was elected to succeed Peñalosa as mayor of Bogotá.

[13] Opinion writers in El Espectador discovered that Peñalosa did not hold a doctoral degree, after contacting the University of Paris, which confirmed that it did not offer any academic program that would grant a PhD in Public Administration.