The city has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to dozens of bicyclists arrested over the years during monthly group rides that began as a challenge to the automobile’s supremacy but degenerated into a showdown with the NYPD.

The 83 cyclists were among dozens arrested for mostly minor infractions during the Critical Mass rides between 2004 and 2006. The arrests largely stopped in 2007, the year a group of riders filed a civil-rights lawsuit.