A Manhattan civil judge is set to rule that the NYPD was out of line in assessing a $1 million fee for traffic control to the annual Five Boro Bike Tour.
The 32,000-person ride is scheduled for May 5.
Judge Margaret Chan dubbed Bike New York a nonprofit with educational programs that benefit New Yorkers.
“Isn’t that something the city wants to promote, isn’t that the Department of Transportation’s main plan for the city this year?” Chan said to city attorney Sheryl Neufeld in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday.
Chan also rejected the city’s argument that the tour’s $86 participant fee invalidates the ride as a charity event.
She noted that the NYPD was not imposing the fee in similar walkathon fund-raisers for cancer.
“I will give you a formal decision, but you know where I’m going with this,” Chan said.
The car-free tour closes major city thoroughfares. The city imposed the fee for the first time in the 40-mile tour’s 35-year history in March because it found that the cycling event is a “noncharitable athletic parade.”