Ah, yet another Strong Towns anti-car screed of "let's make all roads so damn slow nobody can actually get anywhere" without any discussion of the
downside of what they propose.
I've lived in "Cannah get theyah from heah" Boston. I can assure you that slow, safe, crappy, narrow, winding roads suck as bad as you think.
Or try going from Braddock to Penn Hills in Pittsburgh, PA. Nice and slow and infuriating. There's a reason why a whole bunch of people decided "You know, that nice empty area west of Pittsburgh with roads that actually let you get from A to B is very enticing."
> One can easily notice that most folks seem to treat the speed limit as a minimum speed rather than a maximum speed.
I disagree. People simply IGNORE the speed limit and drive at what they consider to be a safe speed.
Part of the problem is that there are political forces (cough police budgets) that encourage stupidly low speed limits. If all roads were set at the appropriate speed (something like 85% of traffic, IIRC, but there is an actual engineering number), suddenly "speeding" becomes an actual traffic safety issue.
And, in fact, ignoring a speed limit is a rational decision when everybody else would be going 10-20mph faster than you. Absolute speed means more damage when a accident occurs, but relative speed differentials mean more accidents occur.