A Limousine Driver Is Idled But Not Defeated By COVID-19

Karl Bright, originally from Sierra Leone, proudly points out that he is both the limousine driver and owner of his transportation company.
(Phillip Martin/WGBH News)

Karl Bright picked me up at home last week in a brand new black Cadillac.

Bright is a limousine driver and also the owner of his company, Transportation Initiative of Norwood. But he had not been doing much driving.

We were heading to the airport at a time when just about no one else was, and I had asked him to take a circuitous route to get there. Bright steered his vehicle slowly down Massachusetts Avenue in Boston; the road was eerily vacant, as most Bostonians were confined indoors by the novel coronavirus.

“It takes me back to the [Marathon] bombing,” said Bright, glancing at his passenger in the rear-view mirror. “Remember, everybody sheltered in place? This is exactly how it was. This is scary, but it’s real.”

That reality is devastating the bottom line of his small company. Though it was mid-afternoon, Bright said I was his only passenger so far that day. The absence of people on the streets reflects the absence of customers traveling anywhere, whether by foot, plane or limousine.

Read the rest of this story at GBH’s website.