> As long as folks follow the speed limit
Right but isn't that the entire point? People following these shortcuts don't follow the speed limit. They don't drive carefully, and even if they did the increase in exhaust fumes will cause premature deaths of the people living in these streets.
Just because the infrastructure is built poorly to the point where driving through someones neighbourhood is faster than using the appointed thoroughfares doesn't mean the solution here is to just saddle those people with the problem. The solution is improving infrastructure to where people don't feel the need to follow shortcuts, or at the very least to make sure there are no shortcuts that disadvantage some random part of the population.
To me at least it doesn't seem fair that waze et al individually get to decide to make some streets unlivable. That's not freedom, that's a tyranny of those with power over those without.