You want to drive across the pavement. In this situation, are you obliged to refrain from driving if it could compel a pedestrian to stop, slow down or quicken their pace?

In the video, at night you are driving along a street and turning right into the entrance to a property, crossing the pavement; a man in a dark T-shirt is walking along the pavement, between red-and-white posts. You are obliged to refrain from driving if it could force him to stop, slow down or speed up. The answer is: yes.

The Road Traffic Act states that when crossing a footway (droga dla pieszych), the driver of a vehicle is obliged to drive slowly and give way to pedestrians, and giving way means refraining from movement if that movement could force a pedestrian to stop, slow down or speed up. The pavement is the pedestrian's territory: a driver who crosses it when turning from the roadway into a property is a guest there, even though they had right of way on the street. At night, a pedestrian in dark clothing is hard to see, and the posts limit his room to get around the car. So you indicate the turn, stop before the pavement, wait until the man has passed, and only then do you drive across slowly, looking both ways along the pavement - also for pedestrians approaching from the right, from behind the posts.

Legal basis: Art. 26 para. 4 and Art. 2 point 23 of the Road Traffic Act (Prawo o ruchu drogowym)