Two years after the Mercury hosted a forum for motorcycle and scooter riders to air their concerns in front of elected officials, the city council voted yesterday to create a Motorcycle and Scooter Citizen Advisory Committee.

The five-member committee—once formed—will help the Portland Department of Transportation develop policies that keep the city’s roads safe and open to motorized two-wheeled vehicles.

The ad hoc group that’s already formed—featuring members of the Sang Froid Riding Club and others—have already put their homework together, with a list of stats (there was a 41 percent increase in new motorcycle licenses between 2001 and 2005, scooter sales have skyrocketed in only a year, etc.) as well as short-term and long-term goals.

First up is compiling all of the information they’ve collected about ridership, usage types, and accident sites, and come up with a plan for more sensible parking (more spaces, duh, and a reasonable meter policy, like prepaid parking decals). Long term goals include increased training and changes to statewide laws like lane-sharing.

Clearly, the city’s attention to bicycles and bicycle safety has paid off for the non-motorized bikers—the idea is to bring the same attention to motorcycles before increased ridership leads to street safety problems.

KGW apparently had a story on it last night—I watched them getting ready to film the segment on the street, starring biker Patrick Leyshock, which was pretty amusing—but the segment is nowhere on their site. Shame, because I would like to have seen how they covered it.

Advocates are planning another forum in the coming month or so, this time to talk about what the advisory committee can and should accomplish. We’ll be sure to let you know more as we find out.