You can totally drive a motorcycle in the rain safely. I'm not sure where you got this idea from.
In Asia, people commute to work on motorbike all the time, rain or shine.
However, motorbikes aren't really practical car-replacement devices in North America. They have less cargo capacity than cars (important when you live in a food desert and grocery shop once every week) and can only seat 2 people, an appalling limitation when you have to ferry your kids around your car-dependent hellhole of a town.
Joke aside you're right in the suburbs. All of the problems with owning a bike as your only means of transport melt away in the city, I know because I was bike-only for about six months and didn't have any problems until I needed to get a car for my job.