At 4:45 a.m., when most drivers are at home, snug in their beds, Allen Bernal is hitting the road, the Los Angeles Daily News reports.
He leaves his Laguna Niguel home, makes his way to the 405 north and drives 80 miles to his job in Woodland Hills. After a full day in the information technology department at Health Net Inc., he gets on the road and does it all over again – alone.
“That’s the sign of the times – you’ve got to go where the jobs are, and my family didn’t want to move,” Bernal said, gassing up his Honda Civic Hybrid.
After losing his car-pool buddy, Bernal bought the hybrid expressly so he could go solo in the car-pool lane, shaving precious minutes off his long commute. And as he cruises along, he passes plenty of people all by themselves, sitting unaccompanied on clogged freeways.
According to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, Bernal and everyone else aren’t alone in being alone. Nearly nine out of 10 workers drive to their jobs each day, 77 percent by themselves.
