I am guilty of speeding, all the time.  I am trying to break myself of the habit.  This is not to say I am a bad driver.  I am no worse than any of the people I work with or any of my friends.  I have compared and the number of speeding tickets I have gotten are no more or less than anyone I have checked with.  I wanted to know why people speed, or at least, common reasons that we feel the psychological need to speed.  Here is what I discovered.

There are three general reasons that drivers typically break the posted speed limits of a given area.

The most common reason is unfamiliarity with an area and its posted limits. Enforcement officials generally take the view that this is accidental albeit still unacceptable.

The second most common reason is simply not paying attention to either the posted limits or the vehicle itself. This is almost always due to drivers being distracted and is never considered an acceptable excuse by enforcement officials.

Finally, the third most common speeding reason is deliberate excess speed. Some drivers simply choose to ignore posted limits and drive whatever they feel is appropriate. Visit Wikipedia for further reading.

Guess its not all just mental.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit