Seemingly innocuous things like a sawed-off sign post can be a serious danger to people who don’t see it.

Among the problems we’ve repeatedly reported on over the years is the metal stub of a sign post left sticking out of the ground or a sidewalk after it was knocked over or cut off.

They’re usually a couple of inches higher than the surrounding surface and are often located where they can potentially be dangerous, like the middle of a busy pedestrian area.

In many cases, the post has been cut off close to the ground by a city worker. We’ve often wondered why those responsible don’t seem to know that they should be cut off at ground level, where they won’t be a tripping hazard.

An ongoing mystery is why they don’t see the obvious: this thing is easy to trip over and should be entirely removed before somebody catches their foot on it and falls on their face.

Dave Page sent us a note and a photo of a sawed-off sign post in the middle of the sidewalk along the north side of the Bloor viaduct, at the west end of the bridge, where Parliament St. intersects with Bloor.

“I almost tripped over this metal stump left from a sign,” said Page, noting that it’s not far from the Castle Frank TTC station, which draws a lot of foot traffic to the area.

“Not only could someone trip (over it), they could trip and fall into the street, into fast moving traffic that is always flying around the bend,” in the road, he said.

We went there and watched as pedestrians crossing the bridge easily manoeuvered around the metal stump. They didn’t seem to be endangered or inconvenienced by it.

But what could happen after dark? What’s left of the post easily blends into the sidewalk and makes it much harder to see. That’s when someone is most likely to trip over it.

STATUS: We’ve asked transportation service if it can arrange to have the stump cut off flush with the surrounding sidewalk, as soon as possible.

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