As for pedestrians and bikers, I really really like Europe's solution to that problem: Pedestrian and Bikers are illegal on the freeway. Big trucks are made strongly and forcefully impractical in cities, towns, and villages.
It's crazy that I live in downtown SF and there are huge freight trucks driving past my bedroom window every day.
It's dangerous as hell, but impractical to do any other way...
Deliveries inside the city are done with smaller lorries which are a bit safer maybe. If not safer, definitely more practical on tight inner-city streets.
I don't think it's practical for trucks to be designed as pedestrian safe as modern city buses are, so it's better to keep them away from pedestrians as much as possible.
I don't think capitalism is the issue.
Saving resources by skipping on safety features is not exclusive to capitalism. If anything, the correlation seems to run backwards - capitalist countries are generally safer (mostly, I'd say, because they're rich enough to spend extra resources on safety).
In case of non-profits and the government people might actually sue for wasting of money because money is spent on stuff that is not required by law.
Can you give an example of such a lawsuit ever having succeeded?
There is, it's called capitalism, and a safety skirt costs money.
The fix is, as in many cases, regulations. However, I believe that even the shown safety skirt leaves too much space below, and especially exposed tires, which is still dangerous for pedestrians and bikers.