Giving Compass' Take:

• Global Citizen reports on a study that shows how job applicants may be missing out on opportunities due to long commute times, as employers favor those who live closer to work.

• How can those involved with urban planning make sure that convenient, reliable transportation is accessible to all, which may mitigate the factors discussed in this piece?

• Here are some of the challenges of user-centered transportation.

Applicants may be losing out on job opportunities because of long commutes, a recent study says.

Researchers with the University of Notre Dame found that employers hiring for low-wage jobs in Washington, DC, are more likely to hire applicants with shorter commutes times, reports CityLab. Those who live farther from the city center, but with equal qualifications, were called back 14% less often, according to the study.

While the study did not reveal strong evidence that hiring managers based their decisions on the racial make-up or average income levels of outlying neighborhoods, there is a notable connection between race, income, and access to jobs in US cities. As of 2016, the median household income in for white families living in Washington, DC, was over $100,000 more than that of African American households.

In Boston the wealth gap is even more extreme. The median net worth of a white family is $247,500 while the median worth of an African American family is $8, reports the Boston Globe. As of 2014, the city's unemployment rate was twice as high for black workers.

A study in 2017 determined that nationally, white applicants receive on average 36% more callbacks than equally qualified African Americans and 24% more callbacks than Latinos. Hiring discrimination against African Americans has not decreased since the research began in 1989.

Read the full article about transportation equitable cities by Sophie Maes at Global Citizen.