Why are regional jets slow?
It has been mentioned often in the press etc, that one of the effects of the proliferation of regional jets has been the crowding/slowing down of air traffic because although they cruise at the same flight levels, the travel slower than full size jets.
Why do they fly slower? Apart from FD 328, which was derived from a turboprop plane, the other ones were directly built as jets, so why were they made to cruise at slow speeds?