I think this is the uncomfortable truth. I love tiny sports cars, but even I have steadily shifted my attention to larger & larger vehicles. (A family of tall bicyclists has an objectively easier time in an Outback than a Samurai)

The only real downsides to larger vehicles are cost and exterior size, but with subsidy, wide lanes, and big parking spots those pains are removed. Small cars mostly are mostly popular where lanes are narrow, parking spots are tiny, costs are high, and so forth.

Happily, this is mostly orthogonal to safe road design (aside from the towering height of today’s truck grilles)

Plus those giant vehicles have additional features not as often found on the small ones like 360 cameras and auto parallel park systems, so don’t expect crappy parking situations to stop these drivers from taking up every square inch of your cities parking infrastructure.

The “big vehicle = more features” thing is also an independent reason for the success and popularity of big vehicles in America.

Good summary. No idea why it gets downvoted. People want big cars for selfish and arm-race reasons. They don't pay for the consequences so it's rational as well. When it's rational to engage in an arm race we need regulation but we are not getting any.