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Most speed limits are not based on safety or science.
They are based on enhancing the ability of government to generate income.
The time has come to re-examine the correlation of safety to speed.
This mantra gets beaten into people from an early age, and there for believed.
Yet, evidence indicates (based on the European models on unlimited roads) that the fatal accident rates on the Autobahn and others, are lower.
I personally find it somewhat amusing, that as a nation we have re-examined the issue of the use of recreational Marijuana, but, raising a speed limit is like spitting on the flag.
Massive tin-foilage aside, the science of designing highways isn't new. When roads are laid out the radius of the curves, the width of the road, the surface, etc., are considered. Limits are set according to those parameters.
In urban and maybe suburban areas you could use electronic speed signs and vary the limits according to conditions. I read as early as 1969 in the New York Times that New Jersey used to cut the speed limit on the New Jersey Turnpike from 60 to 40 during blizzards. Why not based upon time of day or day of week as well?
We do that already here, along several freeways in the greater Seattle area. As you can see, it can be 30 or even lower at commute times in some lanes.
That should be far more common. How high are the limits on those roads during light-trafficked hours?
In Michigan the speed limit is 70. When you hit Detroit city limits it drops to 55 just cuz. No one pays any attention to it. Regardless of posted limits if you drive below 70 you will hold up traffic and may get rear ended. Everyone drives between 70 and 85. Police never bother anyone unless they are over 80, usually over 85. If they wait long enough some kid will come along at 90 - 100 (usually riding a crotch rocket aka organ donor bike) and they can go get them. They will also pick off anyone driving stupid - changing lanes constantly, weaving, brake happy, etc. With the exception of a couple of cities where cops are tax collectors (Romulus, Troy) our police officers seem pretty inclined to apply common sense and just pick off the ones who are a danger to the rest of us. Unfortunately, they do nto seem to run out of options for that.
Massive tin-foilage aside, the science of designing highways isn't new. When roads are laid out the radius of the curves, the width of the road, the surface, etc., are considered. Limits are set according to those parameters.
When visiting my home state last month, I noticed there was a long stretch of state highway with a limit of 55, but the road had such tight curves (like making a turn at an intersection!) that going 55 in some places would literally lead to running off the road and losing control of the vehicle! In the same state, there are other places (long straight sections of interstate, typically) where the flow of traffic is 10 mph over the limit and trying to strictly adhere to the limit would actually be less safe than going with the flow of traffic.
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so can a bucket with 2 inches of water in it.. 
