This is my favourite stop sign in the world.
When they re-did the street like ten or fifteen years ago, they decided that the spot also needed a stop sign. But this addition seemed to have been something of an afterthought, as rather than doing the sensible thing and placing it on a protective traffic island, they simply stuck the sign right into what was essentially the middle of bare street. Where any passing car could easily drive right over it.
Which they did. No less than three times. In rapid succession.
This stop sign used to be seven feet tall. Every time it got hit (and consequently flattened flush to the ground), the repair people simply sawed off the bent part of the post and stuck it back into the street. (If you look closely, you can still see the rusted remnants of previous placements at the foot of the sign.)
After a while, and continued impacts (and sawing), they seemed to realize that they were eventually going to actually *run out* of post. In desperation, instead of putting it back in the ground, they filled a five gallon bucket with concrete, set it on the road, and put it in *there*, presumably with the thought that they’d just be able to set it back up if it got knocked over.
(Yeah, that didn’t last long.)
But then, finally, someone came up with a solution: they mounted the sign ON A COMICALLY LARGE SPRING.
As you can probably guess from the warped angle at which it stands, the sign continues to be flattened at regular intervals to this day—but it pops back up every time, a true inspiration to us all.
(I can only hope that it’s accompanied by a hilarious ‘BOING’ sound effect).