Cities could combat this by setting up a rent a big f off truck for 24hrs program I suspect. For that one time in the year when you have to haul some lumber.
The male ego part is a little harder to solve.
Of course, this makes things worse for the other party in the collision and leads right back to the same arms race in car size, or worse since a hollow shell can win an ego display but only a wrecking ball can win a collision. We should probably tax this, but I expect that people with big cars will kill the tax before the tax kills big cars. The eventual answer will probably lie in city centers or neighborhoods that ban or heavily disincentivize big cars within their borders.
It sounds like car companies have successfully sold that idea to parents. So maybe the answer is to advertise how much easier it is for someone to accidentally kill your kid in an SUV.
Doesn't uhaul already fill this niche?
WFH is my secret. The only time my truck comes out of the garage is when something needs hauled. The utility benefits my whole immediate family as well, whenever they need something transported.
I find it to be the best of both worlds.
Motoring is absolutely subsidised - by motorists, who pay 90% of the cost before a single wheel is turned.
And Jesus, with a apologies to one Jeremy Clarkson, I have twice, debatably thrice, in my life needed to make a journey where the stakes were "this might be the last time you see them" (good news, it wasn't). No other transport option was vaguely credible. What the hell am I going to think of someone telling me "no, you can't do that"?
The average full use of a large vehicle is low, but peak usage is quite high.
Nearly every Home Depot has rentable trucks, very affordable too.
But you have to travel to the location and go through all the paperwork hassle every time you do the rental, which means either going there with another adult or leaving your car unattended in a parking lot until you do what you need to do.