diff --git a/lib/jekyll/page.rb b/lib/jekyll/page.rb
index 2f7803d5..730af13f 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/page.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/page.rb
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ module Jekyll
       # sanitize url
       @url = url.split('/').reject{ |part| part =~ /^\.+$/ }.join('/')
       @url += "/" if url =~ /\/$/
+      @url.gsub!(/\A([^\/])/, '/\1')
       @url
     end
 
diff --git a/lib/jekyll/post.rb b/lib/jekyll/post.rb
index 9824ef02..388c86c3 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/post.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/post.rb
@@ -228,6 +228,7 @@ module Jekyll
       # sanitize url
       @url = url.split('/').reject{ |part| part =~ /^\.+$/ }.join('/')
       @url += "/" if url =~ /\/$/
+      @url.gsub!(/\A([^\/])/, '/\1')
       @url
     end
 
diff --git a/site/_posts/2012-07-01-variables.md b/site/_posts/2012-07-01-variables.md
index 7f577ecb..9b969e83 100644
--- a/site/_posts/2012-07-01-variables.md
+++ b/site/_posts/2012-07-01-variables.md
@@ -176,7 +176,8 @@ following is a reference of the available data.
       <td><p><code>page.url</code></p></td>
       <td><p>
 
-        The URL of the Post without the domain. e.g.
+        The URL of the Post without the domain, but
+        with a leading slash, e.g.
         <code>/2008/12/14/my-post.html</code>
 
       </p></td>
diff --git a/test/test_post.rb b/test/test_post.rb
index 9fe29100..1d7b8539 100644
--- a/test/test_post.rb
+++ b/test/test_post.rb
@@ -71,8 +71,8 @@ class TestPost < Test::Unit::TestCase
         @post.read_yaml(@source, file)
 
         assert_equal "my_category/permalinked-post", @post.permalink
-        assert_equal "my_category", @post.dir
-        assert_equal "my_category/permalinked-post", @post.url
+        assert_equal "/my_category", @post.dir
+        assert_equal "/my_category/permalinked-post", @post.url
       end
 
       context "with CRLF linebreaks" do