In the presented scenario, are you exempt from the requirement to maintain a distance of at least 1 metre when overtaking a cyclist?

In the photo, you are driving along a road next to a forest; on the right, on the shoulder beyond the edge line, there is a cyclist in a dark jacket. You are not exempt from the requirement to keep a distance of at least 1 m when overtaking them. The answer is: no.

The Road Traffic Act states that when overtaking, the driver of a vehicle is obliged to exercise particular caution, and in particular to keep a safe distance from the vehicle or road user being overtaken, and when overtaking a bicycle, this distance may not be less than 1 m. The rule makes no exception at all: it does not matter whether the cyclist is riding on the roadway, on the shoulder or in a cycle lane, or whether they are separated by a line. Driving past a bicycle travelling in the same direction is overtaking, so the one-metre rule applies here too. A cyclist on the shoulder may move onto the roadway at any moment to go around a pothole, a puddle or a parked car, and the rush of air from a passing car makes the bicycle wobble. If keeping a metre requires entering the left half of the roadway, you check that nothing is coming from the opposite direction, and when there is no space, you slow down and wait behind the cyclist.

Legal basis: Art. 24 para. 2 and Art. 2 point 28 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)