Indeed, so now both the roads and cars are a lot safer I would be very happy to increase speed limits - particularly on highways and country roads. The idea that speed is the root of all evil however has been pushed enough that an unfortunate amount of people believe it, as can be seen by how this post has been dogpiled with downvotes despite the article presenting a quite sensible view. I even got several downvotes for pointing out that cars are actually safer now than in the 70s, as if that was somehow a contentious point of view.

I could live with that tradeoff, but I’d have to see the regional speeds raised first because I don’t believe that would actually happen given how risk-averse our governments are. Instead regional roads keep getting their speed limits lowered and any suggestion of raising them raises cries of outrage - typically from people who aren’t even in the area and who get scared driving on roads without streetlights.