> Car companies do this by making bigger cars, so passenger safety and pedestrian safety are, to some degree, a zero sum game.
Nit: passenger safety and pedestrian safety aren't at odds with each other because in the event of a collision, no pedestrian is heavy enough to pose a risk to driver safety even in tiny 50s-era cars. What's actually happening is that there's a Red Queen's race between car manufacturers: if your car is heavier than your competitors' then your customers will be safer, so every generation of cars gets bigger than the last.
Nit: passenger safety and pedestrian safety aren't at odds with each other because in the event of a collision, no pedestrian is heavy enough to pose a risk to driver safety even in tiny 50s-era cars. What's actually happening is that there's a Red Queen's race between car manufacturers: if your car is heavier than your competitors' then your customers will be safer, so every generation of cars gets bigger than the last.