Sure, residential areas need them low, and highways need them but they should be based on data. The ones in the US are totally made up, and people go faster than them because they're too low. They should be set to the speed people feel comfortable going.
Also, changing speed is more inefficient than going fast. As long as things are flowing well, it's going to be better than traffic with speed fluctuations because some people are going slowly. The limit should be the speed of traffic.