On a damp, overcast day in Soho, London, Cameron Roh positions himself a few steps after a woman talking noisily on her mobile. She is breaking his rules of “sidewalk conduct”, and he holds up his device and presses record. Lost in conversation, the woman doesn’t see him, but still observing from afar, the scene feels deeply uncomfortable. What if she turns around? Is this permissible? Is this ethical?
Suddenly, she ends her call and hurries across the street, unaware of what has just happened. Evidence duly captured, he comes back to my concealed spot and gives his assessment, rated on a ten-point scale – with 10 being perfect sidewalk behavior. “She scores two,” he says. Her offenses? “On her phone, halting abruptly, right in the middle of the pavement, meaning people have to walk around her. Absolutely not.” She didn’t see us, yet that makes it more unsettling; I feel as if we stole something from her. He laughs, unbothered. As an unofficial pavement vigilante, this is what he does.
The Beginning of a Trend
The initial clip the young man posted was in July. Within twenty seconds, he trails five different walkers, calmly analyzing their gait to camera before rating them for speed, path, steps and mobile usage. He later evaluated pedestrians in NYC in more than 30 videos, and has recently diversified to other US cities. This is his first time in the specific chaos of central London. “Up to now, it seems comparable to NYC,” he notes. Just then, a rental bicycle nearly hits us by a movie theater. “Come on!” he cries. “Those city bikes are a new thing. That’s an automatic zero, buddy.”
Nobody yells at anyone due to poor walking, yet everyone senses it
Roh says he ensures that no one can be recognized in his videos and he has strict rules about people who are off limits for criticism. Young children, groups of children, the less able, elderly people – although how he determines whether someone is less able remains vague. On one occasion, we watch a petite lady, who I would guess in her sixties, pushing a Brompton bike, navigating her way past students while on her phone. He observes her and decides against filming, despite the fact she violates nearly all of his rules. “I target people who actively choose to act thoughtlessly,” he states. And it's not only since they annoy other pavement users, he says. “They are also safety hazards.” The lady on the bike is quick, and obviously is in a hurry.”
The Rules of Sidewalk Etiquette
Rather than presume there is a right way for walking, Roh suggests that all people deserve the right to move freely. Yet whether it’s manspreading on buses or queue-jumping, annoyance at bad public behavior is widespread, it's a foundation of UK comedy. That said, though having firm views on how things ought to be done is typically British, getting angry about it isn't the British way. “Rage only ever applies for cars – it’s the same in NYC,” says Roh. “The thing is, nobody shouts at others over poor walking, but we all feel it.”
Sidewalk manners are declining,” he says, partly because of mobile devices. He pauses to point out how many people nearby who walk while gazing at their screens. “I call these people neck breakers,” he comments. “People stuck at a 45 degree angle on their devices, disconnected from the real world.”
While evaluating pedestrians, the first thing Roh looks at is pace. “If you’re walking badly – like meandering, or dragging something – yet your speed is sufficient, then you likely don't hinder my progress,” he says. Next is positioning. “If you’re zigzagging, aimlessly cutting people off, being inattentive to the environment, that will cost you a few points instantly.” Among these, exist specific types that are novel yet recognizable – Lime bikes mounting pavements, phone-gawping, e-scooters on walkways, charity fundraisers, wheelie suitcases that could be lifted, individuals distracted by food on the go to look their direction. Additionally, there are oncoming pedestrians who collide with others, he notes, as we move away to dodge someone. “If you're consulting your GPS, then simply step aside,” he mutters to a group of women tapping a screen with their fingers.
The world is so disconnected. We're absorbed by our devices
A Vocabulary of Misdemeanours
Roh maintains a list of misdemeanours that provides the framework for his ratings. The woman outside Caffè Nero performed a “sudden stop”, he explains, which is when people come to a sudden halt. “Whoa! Complete halt. Right in front of you, no checking the blind spot.”
A personal bugbear is groups walking abreast: “double wides” or “triple blockers”, and “linked double wides”, meaning two people attached to one another somehow “making it harder to, you know, get through,” he says. What’s the biggest phalanx he’s seen? “Occasionally there are a linked quadruple-wide, at which point …” With a heavy sigh, he disapproves.
Naturally, Roh isn't the pioneer to get in a flap over this issue. It's a category if not invented then popularized by the humorist Fran Lebowitz, whose cutting maxims about how people should behave have been the basis books and tours. Roh is indifferent when I mention her name and makes a note to research her.
We bypass a group of men huddled in the middle of the pavement. They should “leave space for those of us with destinations,” he murmurs. But the issue is broader – one of Roh’s biggest frustrations is urban planning favoring cars over pedestrians. Sidewalks are slim, and often badly paved next to smooth streets. Some walkways even merge into roads and back again, with little warning. Strolling in cities is a leveller, yet it's confusing and sometimes risky, turning a potentially civilised urban stroll into a hip-bumping, traffic-harried race. “These spaces ignore pedestrians, even though they are.” Really, though, it’s about getting from A to B at speed – or capitalism. As Colson Whitehead wrote in a famous book: “All believe they are more deserving, each feels their day has been harder than everyone else’s, and everyone is correct.”
The Motivation Behind the Project
Being part of Generation Z, Roh has always “lived and breathed social media”. Raised and schooled in Ohio, he had a preview of his calling at high school, when he faced “hallway rage”. People in corridors, people loitering … “I'll be delayed to my class because of you? No way, that’s gotta stop,” he says. “I've long been a speedy pedestrian, always knowing where I’m going.”
Relocating to NYC for better prospects, he was shocked by the way people moved in dense cities, so he joined the throngs who use social media into a lucrative sport, and began to film them.
Given Roh’s reservations regarding mobiles, the irony that his entire body of work is filmed and parsed through a screen he acknowledges. “Society is fragmented,” he admits. “We’re just consumed by our phones and our AirPods. It's not only younger generations, it's all ages. Age doesn't matter. But my activity, is a form of engagement,
