publish: true gemini: true tags:

• systems_thinking
• urbanism_and_transit created: ‘2026-05-04 14:40’ last_modified: ‘2026-05-04 14:40:00’ status: evergreen confidence: fact

Bottlenecks determine the throughput of a system

A pipeline can only process volume at the exact speed of its most restricted constraint; improving anything else is an illusion of progress. In city planning, Mass transit reduces the tragedy of the commons by fundamentally widening the physical bottleneck.¹

Footnotes

1. Goldratt, E. M. (1984). The Goal. ↩