The publicly stated goal of many (most?) Californian leaders is to get people out of cars and into public or alternative transport. Hence the last decade of low

The publicly stated goal of many (most?) Californian leaders is to get people out of cars and into public or alternative transport. Hence the last decade of lowering speed limits, raising tolls, adding "traffic calming" measures, reducing lanes of travel, not building more capacity to match increasing population, raising fees involved with vehicle ownership, reducing available parking, increased speed cameras/traps, etc., etc., etc. Raising speed limits would make driving a better and more efficient experience and thus would run counter to those goals and will never happen.