Whilst travelling on the M25 over the Christmas break, and the inevitable variable speed limits, it occurred to me that these speed limits are analogous to pacing. If you just leave traffic flow to its own devices, and there is some partial restriction to the flow, I'm pretty sure you end up with "pressure waves" in the traffic flow, akin to gas flow. I suspect the traffic density peaks and troughs quite a distance back from the source, with the traffic speed thereby oscillating. The speed limits effect is probably to preemptively dampen out the oscillatory behaviour, so the overall pace of the traffic ends up much more even, albeit slower than drivers would otherwise be able to in the peaks. The damping effect needed varying according to prevailing conditions. Speed limits are not damping in the strictest sense, but achieve a damping effect.
If you think of traffic flow as akin to energy flow (which in a way it is anyway), and pacing as a means by which PwME preemptively even out the rate at which they consume energy before they overcook things and go into boom-and-bust mode, then I think there is a similarity.
Just a rough analogy, nothing more.