Traffic delineator post

Claim 1

A delineator post comprising a body made from a section of long thin flexible stock having a uniform transverse cross section, the body including a strip of essentially uniform thickness and lips at the edges of the strip projecting outwardly of one side of the strip to increase the thickness of the body; a light reflective member; a connection securing such member to the top end of the body on said one side of the strip, the lower end of the body being adapted to be buried below grade so that the post extends vertically upwardly and the light reflecting member is in position to reflect light directed thereon; and a first flex section of the post located above the lower end, such first flex section including notches extending through all portions of the body, including said lips, increasing the thickness of the body greater than the thickness of the strip so that the thickness of the post at the first flex section is essentially uniform across the width thereof, whereby a vehicle impacting the post above the flex section non-destructively bends the post down about such section, passes over the post and thereafter the post elastically returns to its upright position, the inner edges of the lips overlying said one side of the strip to define a pair of edge recesses extending along the length of the body, a lip on the top end of the body overlying said one side of the strip, such lip extending between the lips at the edges of the strip to define a recess extending across the top end of the body, the top recess and the edge recesses cooperating to define a generally U-shaped recess extending around the top end of the post; said light reflecting member comprising a flexible sheet of light reflective material lying flush on said side of the strip and having side edges and a top edge, such edges and said U-shaped recess forming said connection with the edges extending into the U-shaped recess to secure the light reflective member to the body; and a second flex section of the post located between the light reflective material and the first flex section, such second flex section including notches extending through all portions of the body, including said lips, increasing the thickness of the body greater than the thickness of the strip so that the thickness of the post at the second flex section is essentially uniform across the width thereof, whereby the upper end of the post may be bent back to open the notches of the second flex section to permit movement of the flexible sheet of light reflective material out of and into the U-shaped recess through the notches of the second flex section.