Mayor Bloomberg insisted yesterday that a spray-painting prankster’s creation of a “tourists” lane on a Flatiron District sidewalk in no way reflected a hatred of slow-moving out-of-towners.

“It certainly says something for our feeling for tourists. They want to show they’re willing to give up some space to have people that come here and support our industries,” Bloomberg said. “It’s a nice thing to do.”

He declared anyone who interpreted the lanes along Fifth Avenue as an expression of irritation with the camera-toting set “to be a pretty sick person.”