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Because a road has a natural speed, and that's what most people will drive at when they're not actively thinking about it.

If the speed limit is below that natural speed, you end up with most drivers going faster while the few follow the absurd rule.

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The problem is that the "natural speed" for a road is based on a human brain's subconscious calculation. And the human brain is very bad at doing that for any speed faster than a good runner can go.

Actually the human brain is good at finding the natural speed. Many roads have a natural speed that is higher than the safe speed and this is a problem. When the road itself says drive some speed the human brain is not good at reading that the road is tricking it and the safe speed is slower.

The above is a failure of engineering. It has been well studied in academics, but few actually account for it.

Is it absurd to not want to get pulled over?

I'm not arguing against raising the speed limit to the natural speed. I'm against blaming (and tailgating and generally harassing) drivers who are following the speed limit because they don't want to have to pay a fine. It seems like the blame is misplaced.

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