In the UK in 2017 there were 6,000 drivers charged with a speeding offence
every day; over 2 million for the year, an increase of 30% over the last 5 years. So either we're all criminal scumbags, or something else is going on.
The speed limit has remained the same since 1965.
Think of the suspension, chassis, tyre, differential, tcs advances that have happened since then, not to mention brakes, crumple zones, crash tests, NCAP, etc; everything has improved dramatically and cars are demonstrably far safer than they were 10 years ago, let alone half a century!
We've even had government schemes to scrap older (less safe) vehicles & encourage uptake of newer models, yet we're seeing speed limits lowered, not increased...
There's no logic to it; a farm track barely wide enough for one car, zero visibility, ditches either side, not even tarmac can be legally driven at 60mph, no worries, yet increasingly temporary restrictions of 50mph are being enforced on dual carriageways & motorways... for seemingly no reason.
Speed limits both confuse and annoy the living **** out of me, but not as much as the fact that it's almost impossible to raise this taboo subject