Judge overturns assisted suicide bill on a technicality, Bus-travel company FlixBus says the competition isn't Greyhound but cars, legalized sports gambling.
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FlixBus wants to get LA drivers out of their cars — and out to Vegas
When it comes to traveling from Los Angeles to places like Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Phoenix and San Diego, trains, planes and automobiles are the usual go-tos.
But a new company plans to disrupt that kind of thinking with a different kind of bus service -- one that connects L.A. to nearby cities using brand-new motor coaches equipped with WiFi, outlets at every seat and on-board entertainment.
"The way we approach the market, we don't even see ourselves as a bus company. We are really a new mobility option," says Pierre Gourdain, general manager of FlixBus US, headquartered here in L.A. He was speaking from on-board a brand-new FlixBus wrapped in its signature lime green, headed for one of its target markets – Las Vegas.
Eventually tickets between LA and Sin City will cost about $25, but they can be had right now for as little as $3. Gourdain says the company is choosing to launch with low prices and word of mouth rather than traditional advertising.
"We aim to be cheaper than using your own car and gas."
FlixBus started selling tickets yesterday and will begin running buses between L.A. and San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Palm Springs and a handful of other cities on May 31. This summer it plans to expand with routes to San Francisco, Sacramento and the central valley.
"This is a major development in intercity bus travel," says Joseph Schwieterman. A bus transportation expert with DePaul University in Chicago, he researches the most heavily traveled – and underserved – ground transportation routes in the country. L.A. to Phoenix ranks first – with 2.5 million trips annually, few of which are taken by bus.
More than 4 million trips are taken between L.A. and Las Vegas each year. How people get there is about evenly split between car and plane, Schwieterman says.
"We had a boom in travel ten years ago, but things have tapered off with fuel prices coming down and air travel intensifying," he says.
Which is why most people drive or fly. Greyhound and other bus lines linking major metropolitan areas, well, they just haven't made themselves alluring on any metric except for price.
Enter FlixBus. Instead of having pickups and drop-offs in one specific location at each end of a trip, the company scatters them around L.A., from Union Station and USC downtown to Santa Monica, Culver City and UCLA on the west side – even Long Beach and Anaheim. Eventually the plan is to have more than 20 stops.
And up to 12 departure times per route per day.
FlixBus doesn't own any of the buses. It partners with regional bus partners. For its L.A. launch, it has partnered with six local bus companies, including Transportation Charter Service in Orange.
"The FlixBus model allows us to focus on the daily operation of our buses -- something we have over 30 years of experience doing -- and puts the technology and marketing in the hands of the experts at FlixBus," said Terry Fischer, President of Transportation Charter Services.
It's the technology, new buses and uniformed drivers that makes the service so attractive, Schwieterman says.
"What's notable about FlixBus is they're a brand-new model to the U.S…. when people want to travel by bus… it's a slick all-purpose carrier that can get them there inexpensively with real high service standards," Schweiterman says.
Flix Bus started in Germany five years ago and now dominates the inter-city bus market throughout Europe. It carried 30 million passengers in 2016 in 26 different countries, from Austria to Denmark to Sweden. In its home market of Germany, FlixBus accounts for 90 percent of all long-haul bus service.
A high-tech startup fused with old-school transportation, FlixBus is accessed through an app or a web site, both of which let travelers book and pay for tickets, track their bus — even get notifications if their ride is running late.
"Today's travelers are really discriminating," Schwieterman says. "They want predictability. They want to feel like they're surrounded by people who are like them.
FlixBus is targeting two main groups. People without a lot of money. That means you, UCLA and USC students. Also, people with a lot of time – so seniors. But Flixbus
"We see this service as catering to everyone," says Pierre Gourdain of FlixBus.
Because times are changing, even here in car-oriented L.A.
"There is a very strong trend that we see people just don't want to drive anymore… one reason is traffic," Gourdain says. "We see Los Angeles as the test bed for transportation tomorrow in the U.S."
Which is why FlixBus is here, hoping to do for SoCal city-to-city bus travel what Uber and Lyft have done for getting around town. Without a personal vehicle.
How legal sports betting could work in California
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that stopped states from legalizing sports gambling.
Now, it's up to states to decide whether to legalize and regulate betting on sports. Some are considering it, and California is one of them.
State Assemblyman Adam Gray of Merced hopes to put the question to voters on the November ballot. Gray says his measure isn't about whether or not sports betting is morally right or wrong; it's about whether Californians want to give those already gambling on games a legal avenue.
Sports wagering is something that is here, that has many Americans participating in it on a regular basis including many Californians, so I think it ought to be a safe, regulated, taxed industry instead of letting billions of dollars continue to enter the black market.
The important thing to remember at this point, the assemblyman says, is that this will eventually be a question for voters. Whether on the ballot this November or in the future, this isn't a change Congress will make without voter approval.
If sports gambling were legalized, the details of how it could look haven't been worked out, but it would likely look very similar to betting on games that happens in Las Vegas, Gray says.
California could also look oversees for a model. In European countries like England, sports betting is essentially ubiquitous, Take Two contributor Brian Kamenetzky says.
Even the queen has been known to place a wager now and again, and so the options available to gamblers are almost endless. You can put money on a game before it starts, you can put it on while it's being planned. If you're a soccer fan you can bet on who will score the next goal, whether it will come on a penalty kick... In England, at least, it's pretty much you do it anywhere you want.
Americans might not have such open regulations but we will likely see some legalized gambling in the future Kamenetzky said.
Plus:
- American sports leagues are open to legalizing gambling because it could mean more viewers tuning in to games.
- College sports and unpaid student athletes could create unique challenges for the sports gambling landscape.
How the Supreme Court sports betting decision could support the case for sanctuary states
The Supreme Court decision to overturn the federal law banning sports betting may end up empowering California in its various challenges against the federal government – including its status as a sanctuary state.
It all boils down to the 10th amendment and states’ rights.
Aaron Caplan, who teaches constitutional law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, explains that the Supreme Court’s decision was not actually focused on the debate of whether sports betting should be illegal. It had more to do with how Congress wrote the law in question.
Instead of declaring that sports gambling is illegal, Congress instead told state legislatures they had to make gambling illegal – and that’s the problem.
Congress can pass immigration laws and Congress can hire people to work for ICE to enforce the immigration laws, but this week’s decision sort of reiterates the idea Congress can’t tell the state government, “Here’s what your law has to be and here’s what your state employees have to do.” State employees are within the control of the state.
How the decision could be used in court to defend sanctuary states
If the federal government were ever to pass a law that said the state governments must have laws allowing their police to transmit information to ICE, that could run into the same kind of problem that the sports gambling law had.
The ruling also throws some cold water on dissenting cities who say their issue with sanctuary state status depends on the federal government’s position.
That’s not going to be a very persuasive argument for the cities at the point. Their argument always was, “Well, gee, the federal government is always telling us we have to do X. We have to give them information about people who may be in violation of immigration laws.”
I don’t know that that was ever true. I don’t think there’s any federal laws that even purport to tell local police, “You must provide information to us.” But, if there was a law like that at the federal level, this week’s decision says it’s got a big constitutional problem with it.
Caplan says the debate between California and its cities regarding the state’s sanctuary status could potentially go to court, but right now it’s not a major legal issue.
They can have a political disagreement about it, but if it goes to court, it’s pretty straightforward. The state law is binding on cities within California and there doesn’t seem to be any federal law telling the state it has to behave differently. And even if there was a law like that, depending on how it’s written, it might be unconstitutional.
After this week’s Supreme Court decision, that much is clear.