Quote Originally Posted by Pike View Post
Yeah, nah, I don't buy it. If there's a speed limit, it's there for a reason. Those guys who lay the roads down are way smarter than I am.

Besides it's not like going ten over the speed limit is going to save you any more than like 15 seconds in the long run on most trips. I go full schadenfreude when some speeder passes me and then gets stopped at a red light. CONGRATS ON THINKING YOU'RE SAVING TIME WHEN YOU'RE ACTUALLY NOT, BRO
Roads certainly have a design speed, but you probably don't know what it is. Mostly it's going to be related to the steepness of curves or visibility. The observation appears to be that most drivers will drive whatever speed they feel comfortable on a given road, and it tends to follow a bell curve of sorts.

At least in theory, many traffic engineers recommend setting the speed limit at the 85th percentile. Of course, the interstates in and around Milwaukee are for some reason set at 55mph, which as far as I've observed, can't be much better than the 10th percentile. (I always drive at or very near the speed limit, and I am lucky to ever pass anyone driving in Milwaukee.) Meanwhile, in Montana and North Dakota, where the speed limit is 75mph on I-90/I-94, I am very rarely passed and am passing people all day.

I especially like the people who blasted past me at 85 or something, only to slow down to 70 after they pulled in front of me. Yeah, thanks guys.

If there were no speed limits, I'm not entirely sure what I'd do. On one hand, I'm perfectly comfortable driving way faster than most drivers, but on the other hand, fuel economy drops rapidly as speed increases. I suspect I'd say screw fuel economy and just go however fast I felt comfortable given the road and traffic conditions. Who knows.