A good chunk of this article talked about Michigan and the reasoning behind its increasing speed limits, but it somewhat failed to address your point, so I'll d

A good chunk of this article talked about Michigan and the reasoning behind its increasing speed limits, but it somewhat failed to address your point, so I'll do so since I know a bit about this subject (hell, everyone who lives in Michigan at a certain age becomes an expert on these things -- there's nothing resembling useful public transportation here). We have several cities, but they're somewhat small by comparison to some of the places a lot of HN readers are from. There's no analog to SF/Silicon Valley here. Sure, people walk around Detroit, but for the most part, that's down-town in a few select areas (yes, people do walk in the outskirts, as well, but there are much larger dangers going on there than pedestrian fatalities). There are several other cities where there is a lot of walking traffic. The speed limits are 25MPH in all of the places you'd expect them to be[0]. The 85th percentile rule does not apply in these cases nor does it apply on residential roads. I live on a main subdivision road and folks commonly exceed 25MPH. I call the cops when I see it and they've had patrols going on in my neighborhood every day for the last two weeks (it's very profitable for them). People are finally slowing down again. You will get pulled over for going 5MPH over the limit in these situations, whereas that would never happen on a main road unless you were doing something else wrong. I'm a huge supporter of the 85th percentile rule, but only when applied outside of these cases. Yes, people walk on the county/state roads that are set by this rule, but there are proper signals with increased delay times when pedestrians push the magic button (which, on these roads, actually does something -- the walk/don't walk signals won't turn to walk ... ever ... if the button isn't pressed). On freeways, there's no pedestrian traffic (on purpose, anyway). [0] My daughter is hard of hearing (with hearing aids and all) and ADHD. She's the kid who's going to chase a ball into the road without looking and not have strong enough hearing to notice a car before it's too late (she rarely wears the hearing aids at play outside to fear of damaging them). I have followed kids home in my car and had discussions with their parents about their driving. I stick with the rule of "keep up with traffic" and will speed when that's how fast everyone else is going, but I never exceed the speed limit in pedestrian areas and I hope most adults follow suit ... though if my neighborhood is any indication, the worst time for speeding is when parents are heading to the Elementary school (located in my neighborhood!) to pick up their children. They'll blow past the crossing guards while kids are walking home from school doing 40 MPH. I guess if it's not their kid on side-walk, some folks feel it's more important to get where their going.