Aren't these vehicles manufactured to a significantly lower standard than most in North America?
Significantly lower? Probably not. I bet in some ways higher, other ways lower. But different for sure.
Problem is probably the landscape of huge cars proliferating in the US vs smaller cars other places.
But safety is not inherently worse in lower speed collisions [1]:
"Conclusions: Although we are generally concerned that drivers of small vehicles suffer more severe injuries, our results suggest that, for real-world accidents, K-cars provide similar safety for drivers involved in frontal collisions as standard vehicles in low delta V impact conditions."
But the difference on this side of the big wet bit is that we attribute a big percentage of the safety score to pedestrian safety too - something Americans don't care about.
> Notably, people tend to see what they expect to see.
> When they are looking for cars, they tend not to see motorcycles, even when they are in plain view.
Watch/take this Selective Attention test (1 min 22 sec):
When they are looking for cars, they tend not to see motorcycles, even when they are in plain view.
OTOH, motorcycles can fit into blind spots on cars that other cars cannot, often into blind spots that typically go unnoticed.
"Believe it or not, some drivers point their side mirrors inward — so they see only their own cars — instead of rotating them outward" [2].
Blind spots are self-induced. I've never driven a consumer vehicle where I couldn't adjust my mirrors properly to get rid of blindspots.
[0] https://www.defensivedriving.com/safe-driver-resources/how-t...
[1] https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15131074/how-to-adjus...
[2] https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/car-mirrors-blind-sp...
Aside from ride-height, these vehicles are much lower standing.
If safety / standards are an issue just demand these vehicles meet them as well instead of outright banning them.