"Perhaps by 2030 we'll be able to lawfully drive as fast as we should have
been allowed to drive back in 1990. But don't count on it. There's too much
revenue at stake."

and ...

"If it was "safe" and "reasonable" for a 1958 Chevy with drum brakes and
bias-plys [and independent suspension, non-independent rear axle, anti-sway
bars, etc.) to operate at 70, what of a 2013 Chevy with high-performance
four-wheel disc brakes and 17-inch alloy wheels shod with modern radials
designed for safe travel at continuous speeds in excess of 130 MPH? There
isn't a new (or recent vintage) car that isn't inherently safer (more
controllable, less likely to crash) at 90 MPH than any car of 1958 -- or
1968 (or 1978) -- was at 70. Yet speed limits are, for the most part, just
about back to where they were circa 1970."

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/1...-a-speed-limit