Suzanne's Mom's Blog

Photo: FoxLocal via the New York Post.
The Atlanta Magnet Man has a system for saving bikers from flat tires.

Multitasking Americans like to do more than one thing while exercising. Some people listen to podcasts on their walk. Some turn the elliptical toward the TV. I try to do breathing and meditaion on the treadmill.

Now, here’s a guy who picks up bike-damaging metal while exercising. Cathy Free has the story at the Washington Post.

“Alex Benigno was sick of changing his flat tires. He was getting them all the time … on his bike tires when he biked after work. ‘I’m really good at getting flat tires, and I was tired of patching them all the time,’ he said.

“He looked into it and learned that metal road litter is a nationwide problem, often caused by nails or other sharp objects spilled from trucks, and sometimes even done deliberately. In the United States, a vehicle tire is punctured every seven seconds, causing 220 million flat tires a year, according to a report by Autoily.

“Benigno decided to do something about it. … About a year ago, he bought 10 strong magnets for $160 online, attached them to the underbelly of his bike trailer, then went for a ride through Atlanta late one afternoon to see how many nails, screws, bottle caps, flattened cans and pieces of metal wire he could attract. Benigno rides a stand-up bike because of his back surgery 12 years ago.

“During his first 10-mile trip with the magnets attached, the underside of the trailer picked up about six pounds of sharp metal bits.

“ ‘From there, I decided to keep going out after work every day, added more magnets and tried all kinds of configurations with them to get to where I was collecting even more,’ he said.

“He attached a broom to the trailer to help sweep more metal into the magnets, and he selected different areas of the city to ride through each time.

“By December, he said he was picking up about 50 pounds of debris every 10 days, scraping it off the bottom of the trailer each night and storing it in bins in his car and home or at the photo supply shop where he works.

“When he started an Instagram page in January to alert people to the problem of metal debris in the streets, Benigno called himself the ‘Atlanta Magnet Man.’ His videos and posts quickly built a following, and Georgia Public Broadcasting shared the story of his street cleanup efforts.

“People immediately began to post thank you messages, sharing their own stories of flat tires.

“ ‘Midtown is the worst,’ wrote one person. ‘I have had a couple of flat tires in recent years with all the construction.’ …

“Benigno posted one of his cycling videos on YouTube last month to give people a better idea of how much debris his magnets pick up.

“When Laura Lewis, an Atlanta scrap metal artist, found out what he was doing, she offered to take the mess he’d collected off his hands.

“ ‘I gave her the whole batch — 410 pounds worth,’ Benigno said. ‘I love that she can do something with it.’

“Lewis said she’d been looking for some smaller metal pieces to add more detail to her sculptures. …

” ‘They send out street sweepers to clean the streets, but they really can’t catch all the small bits,’ Benigno said. ‘Because some of these things are so little, they’re flipped around by the sweeper, and when someone runs over them, there goes another flat tire.’ “

I love that an artist can use Benigno’s trash. It’s amazing what certain people find a use for, but you’re lucky if you find them. We once replaced a copper roof, and a copper sculptor was thrilled to get free material for her work.

More at the Post, here.