do smaller ping #'s and fewer hops to a host mean faster access?

Nope. Just lower network latency.

so how can i find out if a host is fast?

Have them put up a large file for download, and see how fast you can download it.

Well why not write a perl script that will query the webhost like say 10 times, and query some of there customers 10 times.

And the speed test sounds like a good idea. But only if you have some faith in your access provider.

And a potential webhosting company can have incredible speeds for you (if your isp and your webhosting provider are on the same network or the same company). Therefore it really would help to test it out from many different locations using different bandwidth providers.