We're a republic, not a democracy. Correction for mistaken belief above.
First, the highly varied nature of our roadways in a number of dimensions. Design speed, number of intersecting roads, maintenance, signage, everything. We're highly inconsistent often on the same road. This patchwork leads to folks doing a perfectly reasonable (if not legal) speed have the road change and are then moving an unreasonable speed for that particular road. When I drove a wrecker I'd often visit such transition points. They're excellent drunk traps, but get ordinary people.
As the article quoted by the OP points out, most of the problems deal with the culture of ME. I suspect one aspect is the routine failure to understand or intentional dismissal of the physical limitations of vehicles and eyeballs. Folks overdrive their cars all the time and certainly overdrive their sightlines. Not that folks are driving faster than their vehicles can handle the road, but they're driving at speeds that won't allow the time of emergency handling that might be required given the sightlines. This isn't just the obvious stuff. 65 mph around a nicely engineered bend with a truck entrance around that sweeper presents the opportunity for encountering a 35 mph wall of metal. The particular spot I'm thinking of has the less nimble vehicles right on the edge of control while they change lanes. Very typical.
Maybe this is primarily failure to acknowledge that the sightline required for mere guidance is quite short, but the sightline required for anticipation and control is a good deal longer. As is the attention required. For control, eyeballing the corner and moving through it are pretty easy. Actually stopping at the stop sign and looking to anticipate what's coming is a different matter.
Add distractors on top of that. And a cultural attitude of speed, out of my way, and me me me. And that's what I see on the road.
Out here we've got several classes of drivers, so it's not everyone. We've got the rural dwellers who know that eventually there will be a tractor around the corner, or a fallen tree. The rural teens who speed, but can drive, and don't generally do insane things, just stupid fast things. Mostly this is a reasonable mix without too much speeding and with a good deal of caution for others. Then there are the city people who have moved out. They tend to be more distracted (cell phones), be driving difficult vehicles (low and small sporty or huge SUV) that go pretty fast and are isolating from the environment, and be in a stupid hurry. They're the ones generally over the center line, passing on blind corners, failing to keep much of a lookout, and running stop signs at substantial speed without really looking. They also seem to be the speed limit plus 20 folks. They do die on the roads with some regularity. And finally, the service vehicles the movement of the city people have brought. These are often lost city drivers in larger vehicles who don't seem to have either handling or anticipation skills suitable to their role.
So it's quite a mix.
And there are a few people who can drive. The motorcyclists seem to drive very sensibly. Our shop is on a motorcycle tour route and we see lots. They aren't usually speeding. Lots of side roads and poor sightlines. I also see a certain number of rather nice sporty cars driven exceedingly well. Very safely, perfect lines, crisp shifts, absolute control. Like a very fast drive in slow motion. Hitting the apex etc. This is always a pleasure. I'm one of those and there are several others in my neighborhood. I can tell they've really driven and have tremendous respect for inertia and rate of closure.
Dealing with them is difficult. With the vehicles I can take a hit from, I drive on my side of the road up to having my wheels right on the edge. I don't generally slow down or otherwise do much than our traditional raise a finger greeting. Unskilled cell phone mamas who do not know the corners of their vehicles sometimes end up in the ditch with their big SUVs. They have room, but don't know it, and won't think of slowing down. The folks who rally outweigh my little truck I attempt to encounter where I have a bit of a safety zone on my right. I treat them the same as the SUVs, but if I need to pop away to avoid a collision I can. The tailgaters - I just drive as I usually do. At the speed limit or below depending on sightlines. That and actually stopping and looking at stop signs drives them berserk!
And the nicest people are idiots on the road. I had a lady cus me out for driving the speed limit. Took her a few minutes to realize she'd eaten dinner in my house and worked in my office. Idiot. And a fellow running a stop sign into me on my bicycle is an administrator at the elementary school. I paid him a sweaty visit. He stops and looks now. But a certain number of folks are incredibly obnoxious about their right to be jerks. Can't educate them.
Enough of a rant. I think it's getting worse. I drive defensively as I can, and I used to actually be able to drive at decent speed in a controlled setting in the real fast cars. The ones that you heat the tires up on. Somehow education in general responsibility and all that flows from it is required, but I don't see how to get there. My daughter won't even get a learner's permit!! She wants nothing to do with the whole game.
be well