Or another way to state this is that people generally drive at a speed they think is reasonable given the road conditions and mostly ignore posted speed limits altogether.
No surprise to me, many states didn't have speed limits outside of town at all in the US until the federal government withheld highway funding until they posted speed limits. That's the reason the 55mph highway speed limit was originally established. It's also the same method by which we forced the drinking age from 18 to 21.
Given a population of people, some will be reasonable in their behavior, some will not be. Setting limits on that behavior is more of a signal (or suggestion) than anything that really changes how people behave in the large. To consider otherwise is to be naive of the reality.
Fun story, data shows that raising highway speed limits results in less accidents, but the accidents that do occur result in more fatalities.
No surprise to me, many states didn't have speed limits outside of town at all in the US until the federal government withheld highway funding until they posted speed limits. That's the reason the 55mph highway speed limit was originally established. It's also the same method by which we forced the drinking age from 18 to 21.
Given a population of people, some will be reasonable in their behavior, some will not be. Setting limits on that behavior is more of a signal (or suggestion) than anything that really changes how people behave in the large. To consider otherwise is to be naive of the reality.
Fun story, data shows that raising highway speed limits results in less accidents, but the accidents that do occur result in more fatalities.