Are Tiny Cars Unsafe? Of course they are; but the NYT doesn't want them to be....

Megan McArdle:

"The outrage at the Times is not reality based. Small cars simply are not as safe as bigger cars, and they can't be made safer by yelling at people who insist on believing in the laws of physics.

As long as Americans insist on having children, and those children are legally required to spend their prepubescent years in some elaborate safety contraption, American cars aren't going to get much smaller than an Accord. And those Accords will continue to pose a mortal threat to those of us who drive smaller cars.

This is a real problem for proponents of higher fuel economy, not to mention the manufacturers of small cars. Cheap, fuel efficient cars are more dangerous. Even hybrids rely at least in part on making the car lighter. On the other hand, running a massive uncontrolled experiment on the global climate seems kind of dangerous too."