Brings to mind the stories from a hundred years ago about towns having their constables arrest “scorchers” who were driving their “gas buggies” (also known as “devil wagons”) down “Main St.” at a blazing 12 mph scaring the horses.
I’ve read about a psychological effect of traveling at a certain speed and how going any slower feels like one is “creeping” along. I think one of the messages here is, if you’re in a big hurry, seek out streets that don’t have a lot of pedestrians and cyclists.

Interesting comments. Yes, it’s very true that there is a psychological effect to creeping along under a certain speed. In fact, studies have shown that if speeds are too low ( as perceived by the driver ), then risk increases because the driver starts to think they can do other tasks while driver. Not helping matters is the fact that today’s cars are designed to insulate the occupants against any perception of speed. At the 30 mph speed limit you really do feel as if you’re crawling on the city’s wider arterial streets. On older cars where more wind noise and vibration crept in, 30 mph might actually feel reasonable.

@ David ( post #2 ),

What you describe is a city-wide problem in the outer boroughs, and if you’re cycling instead of driving it’s even worse. Not only has the city gone overboard adding traffic lights, even when many aren’t justified given the traffic volume, but it has made little attempt to synchronize them. The city could do much better. In the outer boroughs it can easily get rid of half the lights, if not more, with no effect on safety. And many of the others could be retimed. Also, why is the city so averse to using lights which use vehicle detectors at lightly traveled intersections? I’ve seen many lights which turn red but there’s almost never a vehicle waiting to proceed from the side street. These cases clearly call out for traffic lights which remain green on the main road except when a vehicle on the side block trips the detector. Same thing for lights stuck in the middle of streets whose only purpose seems to be to allow pedestrian crossings. Why do these lights go red on a regular cycle? Just have a push-to-cross button ( one which really works, not the fake ones which the city uses in some places ). And late nights have the lights on arterials go to blinking yellow ( with blinking red on the side streets ). Almost every other place does this. All these unnecessary, pointless red lights cause huge amounts of unnecessary pollution. They also make it pretty much necessary for any cyclist hoping to average greater than walking speed to pass the lights whenever they can.

Besides poor engineering, much of the problem can be blamed on vocal community getting traffic lights which aren’t needed from a traffic engineering standpoint. Just in the last few months near me, two more traffic lights were installed at intersections where I rarely remember seeing any cross traffic. The existing stop signs on the side streets worked just fine. We really need a moratorium on any new traffic light installations. Most studies show traffic lights do little for safety. And like any other traffic control device, when used to excess, there ends up being a tendency among road users to ignore them.