Aside from the clueless driving that ruins the commute for the rest of us every single day, highway backups are sometimes caused by some weird things.
Unfortunately, some of these weird things aren't captured on the Arizona Department of Transportation's highway cameras -- like recent episodes of goats and a hot tub on the highway -- but many things are. ADOT posts a lot of those photos to its Twitter account, and take a look at 10 weird things its cameras have documented in just the past few months:
10.) Fire
Flaming cars aren't really that rare on Valley highways.
9.) Smoke
Ah, yes, fire's counterpart. This looks safe.
8.) Dust
If you've lived in the Valley for any time at all, you've seen this one.
7.) A Grill
Grills are very good devices for cooking red meat.
6.) Mangoes
Mangoes -- also, a flaming mango truck.
5.) Winter Wonderland
It wasn't even snow. It was "graupel."
4.) A Sofa
Good for naps, bad for highways.
3.) Fruit Salad
Not only was this a fruit salad spill, but it was a rotten fruit salad spill, that completed screwed up Interstate 10. ADOT's blog has a good explanation of the whole thing.
2.) Half of a Honda Civic
If this one ruined your day, your day was still a lot better than the new owner of half a Honda.
1.) Half of a Highway
This didn't happen around Phoenix, but damn. A 23-mile stretch of US 89 is still closed south of Page due to this, which was caused by a landslide.
Send feedback and tips to the author.
Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.