The risk is definitely quite great and requires personal responsibility. Avoiding drug and alcohol use and using modern safety gear (not DOT junk) greatly reduces the probability of serious injury, but cannot eliminate it. It is a fantastic pastime, though.
There's always dirt riding, track riding, and mountain biking to scratch the itch without traffic!
I loved motorcycling, but gave it up because I could not accept the risk (about 7 to 10 times more likely to die per mile driven vs a car). The most common (about 45%) cause of a motorcycle fatality is a car making a left turn into a motorcycle. I took a lot of training classes, had good gear and always practiced my situational awareness, but after my advanced riding instructor with over 35 years of experience and the best gear money can buy was killed instantly by a driver in a minivan texting while making a left turn, I gave it up.
The feeling of riding a motorcycle is truly amazing and I absolutely miss it, but the risk factor is simply too high for me to be worth it.
DOT is the 'minimum' requirement. There are certainly better helmets. That said, the DOT requirements came into being in response to the number of junk helmets in the 1960s/1970s. It provided a minimum bar that a rider could rely on. After some states actually mandated DOT helmets, there was a huge market for fake DOT stickers from riders that were still wearing crap helmets for 'style' points. Mostly cheap half-buckets.
I started riding in the dirt at age 15, racing 3/8 mile dirt track at 16, and motocross at 17. Got my first street bike at 19. Rode about 100K miles until I moved from a rural part of the country to a heavily urban area, and gave it up because it was no fun in heavy traffic.
Avoiding alcohol and drugs, definitely. Wearing good safety gear, also definitely. I trashed one helmet in my life, walked away with zero injury. Equipment includes proper shoes, pants, jacket. I had one high speed slide, head never touched the ground, but I lost a couple patches of skin, and that was with leather. Modern materials are better. Denim is worthless. Also, carefully choose who you ride with. I had a number of peers that I would not ride with, they were accidents waiting to happen, and I didn't want to get caught up in their dumb ass mistakes.
