As to the decision making process, it’s very true that humanity doesn’t hand out power equally. But, while we can strongly disagree with the system that doesn’t actually change what currently exists without action.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bic...
But a lot of kids are alive who would be dead without their efforts.
The difference is how much kids where biking, which has a lot to do with the utility of biking in a flat high density country.
Utility -> Use -> Risk -> Deaths -> Change
https://www.walkbiketoschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/...
""" In 1969, 48 percent of students in grades K through eight (ages 5 through 14) walked or bicycled to school.1
In 2009, only 13 percent of students in grades K through eight walked or bicycled to school.1
In 1969, 89 percent of students in grades K through eight who lived within one mile of school usually walked or bicycled to school.2
In 2009, only 35 percent students in grades K through eight students who lived within a mile of school usually walked or bicycled to school even once a week. """
From an American perspective the temptation is to bring up suburbs etc, but being bike unfriendly is a global thing. It’s really about the physical effort to travel X distance and therefore the reasonableness of biking such distances to see a friend.
Humanity has not "collectively" decided to prefer cars over other modes of transit. Other countries, most notably the Netherlands, do in fact prefer a much more multi-modal transportation system over a car-centric one like in the United States.
Moreover, your comment ignores the contentious history about this decision in the United States, which was very much imposed on many communities without their consent and to the advantage of a select few who benefited from private automobiles over public transport and other modes of transportation like bicycles. I suggest reading historian Peter Nolan's book "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City" if you are curious.