Recently in Transportation Category

What looks to be a local high-school jazz band has been playing for the past 20+ minutes preceding Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's State of the City address at a Harbor City factory where electric trucks are made.

I have no idea where the kids are from, but for the most part they're pretty good. Sure there's a horn player in there somewhere who's more than a little flat. I won't single out winds or brass, so you've gotta listen yourself if you seek additional information.

A girl delivered a pretty good-sounding flute solo (who doesn't love jazz flute, am I right?), and there was a fine sax solo by another girl after that. I also dig the vibes — meaning the vibraphone — you don't see that very often in a high-school band.

The CEO of the electric-truck company is giving a speech now, and I guess that takes the pressure off of Antonio, who should be on at any minute.

I wouldn't touch it. As the old adage goes, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Or maybe the more apt one is, you get what you pay for. So why is some Craigslister so obviously lowballing this SUV?

Gas prices might have SUV owners dreaming about dumping their monster vehicles for Prius, but this Prius owner has been dreaming about buying an SUV to haul around people and dogs and camping gear. Because of this (which I probably won't do, but it's fun to have a dream), I have been whiling away my lunchhours at work cruising through Craigslist for used SUVs. Just looking, you know. But every page of cars or so I notice one that that is unusually low priced, like this white 2004 Toyota 4Runner listed for $2,990 or this Mercedes SUV for $3,500.

As any frequent Craigslist visitor knows, sellers are more likely to overprice their stuff than lowball themselves. I tried to imagine what scam might be involved that wouldn't eventually be discovered in the course of a buy or check of the VIN numbers. Stolen cars? Probably not. Bad accidents? You'd find that out because it would have a salvage title. Then I remembered a story I heard on NPR a couple years ago after Hurricane Katrina about flood cars being transported to other states and sold. They look fine but their inundation in water has messed up their inner workings.

I found a fraud guide online that has to say this about suspected flood-damaged cars:

Priced Way Below Blue Book Any time you are out shopping for a vehicle and you find one that looks great but is priced far below the going rate it's time to be cautious. If the car is in good condition there is no need to sell it for so cheap because they'll eventually find someone willing to pay a fair price for it. There are certainly valid reasons for a person to sell a car below the going rate but this is something that should raise red flags and lead you to try and find the reason from the person selling the car. If you are given a particularly weak answer you should start wondering what's wrong with the vehicle.

How to spot a flood car

* Gravel or sand in the interior and especially under the dashboard
* Electrical problems
* Priced lower than fair value
* Vehicle History Reports may indicate if the car suffered previous water damage.
* Musty smell or too much air freshener
* Car is from New Orleans

I admit it: In my early driving days, I was a slave to Jiffy Lube. The little stickers the oil-changers gave me told me to change the oil every 3,000 miles, and obediently, I complied. I blame my parents. As a kid, I remember the time the engine of a family car ceased because no one had ever bothered to change the oil. I was never going to make that mistake, I vowed.

So I went to the other extreme, and continued for years. Especially here in SoCal, with a long commute, it felt like nary a month or two passed without another trip to EZ, Jiffy, or one of them Lubes.

But then one day I got a crazy idea: I read my car's owner's manual. Turns out my Honda Accord only needs an oil change every 10,000 miles. And my wife's Ford Explorer only every 5,000.

I had been an oil-changin' sucker.

I wasn't alone. The California Integrated Waste Management Board reports that 73 percent of Californians change their oil more frequently than necessary -- often every 3,000 miles, just like the lubers suggest. So the CIWMB is launching "The 3,000-Mile Myth" campaign to get motorists to stop changing oil so much -- for the good of their pocketbooks and the good of the environment.

So do yourself and the world a favor -- and don't change your oil. Well, at least not more than necessary, anyway. If you're unsure how often you should change it, go to 3000milemyth.org, punch in your make/model/year, and you'll get the info the folks at Jiffy Lube don't want you to know about.

I was prepared this morning for a horrendous commute. I didn't get it. Instead, it was a typical morning slog through the 101, moving but slow, maybe even a little faster than normal come to think of it. Word on the street is that so many people were afraid of horrific commute that they packed the Metrolink and other public transportation outlets.

This only supports the theory of tough traffic love as the solution to the region's traffic woes. See, people adjust to the incremental changes. Traffic gets slight worse every year, but not in big jumps, just little one. Five minutes here, 10 then. We just accommodate the changes by adjusting our lives in other ways. Dinner a little later; leave home a few minutes earlier. All the money we're putting into freeways is only to help us maintain it at the current tight capacity. The high-speed rail and other forward thinking things are coming anytime soon.

So what can be done? How about shutting down a freeway for good? Not that it would ever happen, but that type of catastrophic event has immediate and noticeable effects. People make radical temporary changes, that sometimes lead to permanent life changes They telecommute that week and find that they can work it into their skeds maybe two days a week. They find a job closer to home. They invest in an iPhone and monthly metro pass and incorporate commuting time into their workday . They quit their crazy lives, buy a ranch in rural New Mexico and homestead.

CalTrans has moved pretty quick on this freeway catastrophe, so it's unlikely to change any behavior in the long-term, but perhaps next time.

If you've tried to approach the Newhall Pass in any way, shape or form today, you know it's impossible because of the fiery truck crash that happened late last night in the truck-route tunnel. The Daily News crew is working hard on the story, so stay tuned to our Web site for updates -- including regarding questions about the structural integrity on I-5 after the searing heat of the blaze.