They cannot. Traders can only trade alone if there is no one to stop them. The moment a transport, for instance a 5k, runs up against it pirate, it dies. Only in isolated circumstances is this not the case.
As I said in my first post - your not arguing for balance, you are arguing for trade ships to be weaker so that the Pirate has the advantage, which they always do anyway.
You and Karst could benefit from reading the same thread we've had for ages instead of making more, wasting everyones time.
+1
I agree with some of what was said about pirating alone, I am harder to kill in my serenity than i am in a salvager, and it has less regens. The salvager is not super fast and a good pilot with novas and a snac can tear it up, yes it may take a while but some of you seem to feel a pirate encounter the pirate should always have the upper hand and should pretty much insta-kill any transport with little or no effort. If a Salvager is too hard for you to pirate then do not mess with someone flying one. I feel some of you pirating are getting too lazy, you cannot get along with someone long enough to team up so you have to fly alone i guess. You expect to sit in one spot and have traders fly right up, make a demand and pew pew it is done in seconds. I used to be able to hold my own in some transports after i invested in armor, now it is not the case since most transports are "easy" targets for the lone pirate in the bomber. Who is going to want to run around and trade much when they know sure death is waiting. This is exactly what cause some people to avoid trade lanes all together because it is not so easy to find escorts any more with such low activity, but that does not mean transports should be turned into easy kill targets for pirates. My advice stop crying for nerfs, go practice and get better or quit piracy if you cannot handle running like the big dogs.