Some rabble-rousing artists divided a stretch of sidewalk on Fifth Ave. into two lanes - one for tourists and one for locals.

The anonymous artists painted a white line down the middle of the sidewalk on the east side of Fifth Ave. between 22nd and 23rd Sts.

The words "Tourists" and "New Yorkers" were painted at the both ends of the block to identify who belonged in which lane.

"I'm walking right down the middle," Arthur Hillstone, 54, a corporate consultant, said yesterday. "I live in San Francisco but I work in New York City at least once a month. That puts me somewhere between tourist and New Yorker."

"I'm a tourist, but I want to walk in the New Yorker lane," said Melissa Pace, 22, of Ohio. "I might get away with it because I'm wearing new jeans that I got in SoHo."

Like the cars whizzing down Fifth Ave., some people didn't pay attention to the lanes and walked wherever they pleased.

"Real New Yorkers don't notice crap like this," said Rolando Gilbride, 33, of Brooklyn. "We don't look down when we walk. We look forward."