speeding kills?

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=02ba28f0-86a5-4250-9bd2-d1c2ae606a5b

Speeding kills? The history of speed limits is based originally on engineer assessments of what the average traveled speed on a main road was. At some point, it was decided that reducing the speed traveled would increase fuel economy. Which I suppose it does. The net result however was that people continued traveling on roads at virtually the same speed. This turned out to be a cash cow for local or state governments. Supposedly studies were conducted that showed that lower speeds are safer. But in fact, the safest speed is the one that an average person will travel on a given road (regardless of what the actual limit is, it's whatever people are driving on it); excepting side streets where children (and pets) nix the arrangement. The result being: speed limits are usually too low by at least 5-10 mph in most places. What do most people admit to speeding at, yes 5-10 mph. What do most people get pulled over for, yes 10 mph over. Does any of this increase traffic danger? Actually no. When the limits were raised again, people resumed driving at rates that they always drove at, regardless of imposed limits. The net result however was that a large minority of actual law-abiding citizens also resumed driving at those rates, thus creating greater uniformity and safety. People who drive too slow are just as hazardous, if not more so, than people who drive too fast. A little publicized fact of traffic studies as it is generally lazier to say that driving too fast is deadly. It can be. But intellectually, a person driving fast generally has good conditions to do so, that being, no or few other cars (otherwise, they're probably doing something minutely dangerous). A person driving too slow is generally in the way, causing other cars to have to maneuver to get around them, which maneuvering is the easiest way to cause an accident. Driving fast in a nearly straight line, not so much. In any case, I'll go crawl back under my hole so as not to get a ticket myself. But needless to say, drive whatever traffic levels are going or permit. It's the safest way to travel.