I've recently gone from a 39-16 to a 46-16 (stimulated by a chain-wreck which took out a tooth from my original 39-tooth chainwheel!).
I realised that I was spending too much time near the top of my gears, and often found I'd like something a bit higher to hurtle downhill.
A very successful change, for me ... my regular commute has got a bit faster which I think is due to occasional use of my new #14 on the way.
(It was quite an expensive change, since I changed the nice Thorn alloy chainguard, too!)
Simon.