As DCist reported yesterday, a move is a afoot in the D.C. City Council to have Mayor Anthony Williams re-evaluate speed limits on city streets where cameras are used to catch speeders. Councilmember Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who presided over yesterday’s hearing, stated:

If you’re doing 40 mph in a school zone, I do want to get you. But a four-lane highway with a 35 mph speed limit, and there’s no school there? It calls for a re-evaluation.

According to a study conducted by the Governors Highway Safety Association, residents in the District are 12 times more likely to receive speeding tickets than are residents of neighboring Maryland. In fact, the District ranked first in the country in the number of speeding tickets issued per capita, though the study did not specify whether the numbers applied only to District residents, or included drivers from other states driving within the District. Since the speeding cameras were first instituted in August 2001, 1.2 million infractions have been mailed, and of those, 873,000 have been paid. Last year alone the speeding cameras issued 423,910 citations, while hand-written citations stood at 10,391.

Is it that D.C. drivers are particularly heavy on the gas, or are speed limits throughout the city artificially low? Are there any specific roads whose speed limits DCist readers feel do not reflect their size and amount of traffic?