An aerial view of children and adults riding a paved, car-free stretch of the Joe Louis Greenway

A way to school. A lifelong sport.

The solution to Detroit's transportation crisis.

Major Taylor Michigan teaches kids to ride, builds bike buses that get them to class, and gives adults a way to work. All of it runs along the 27.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway, right past their front doors.

Donate Now How It Works

Recognized & supported by

The problem

Detroit kids are missing school because they're missing transportation.

61%

of Detroit students are chronically absent from school, among the highest rates in the country.

80%

of Detroit schoolchildren do not have access to a school bus.

1/3

of Detroit households don't have a working car, and the ones that do spend more on it than rent.

2.5mi

The average distance an elementary schoolchild has to walk to school due to School of Choice.

The solution

Major Taylor has the solution:

Bikes.

The Greenway

Detroit's 27.5-mile Joe Louis Greenway is perfect: it does not allow cars and connects neighborhoods to schools all across the city.

Learn More

Bike Buses

A bike bus is a group of kids riding to school together, led by trained adults. It's safer than walking, more reliable than the bus.

Learn More

Six Programs

We teach kids to ride, build them bikes, train them in traffic safety, and put racks in their schools. Cycling becomes part of how they live.

Learn More

A period photograph of Marshall "Major" Taylor crouched in racing posture on a track bike

A sport that lasts a lifetime. Inspired by a historic hero.

Every kid we teach learns more than how to ride. They learn that cycling is a sport with athletes, history, and a legacy worth carrying. We are named for Marshall "Major" Taylor, the Black cycling champion who held world records in 1899 and never got the recognition he earned. Our work is one way of giving that history back to the kids who should have had it all along.

About Major Taylor

A map of Detroit tracing the Joe Louis Greenway loop, with open and planned sections marked

Our vision for the Joe Louis Greenway

The Joe Louis Greenway is a car-free corridor running through Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, and dozens of neighborhoods in between. It connects schools to homes, homes to workplaces, and neighborhoods to each other. It is the safest way to get across the city. Most people who live a block from it do not know it is there. We are changing that: every program we run, every bike rack we install, every kid we train is one more piece of a larger plan to make the Greenway the spine of how Detroit moves.

About the Greenway See the Schools

Six connected programs. One lifecycle.

Every stop makes a rider at a different age — from a pre-schooler's first balance bike to an adult riding to work.

Stage 1 · Pre-K / Pre-School
Stride & Glide
A 30-minute session, a pedal-free bike, and the magic moment a kid figures out they can balance on two wheels.
Learn More
Stage 2 · Middle School
Earn a Bike
Hands-on repair and maintenance taught with real STEM technique — and every rider leaves with the bike they built and a helmet to go with it.
Learn More
Stage 3 · Elementary
Bicycle Safety Town
Crosswalks, traffic, signs and signals — practised in a simulated street at the Michigan Science Center before any of it counts.
Learn More
Stage 4 · Pre-K / Elementary
Operation Rack & Roll
Industrial, in-ground, custom-branded bike parking installed at schools — the least glamorous barrier in the whole system, and one of the most decisive.
Learn More
Stage 5 · All Ages
Bike Buses
Safer than walking and more reliable than a bus that may not come — until the route is muscle memory and the ride becomes its own culture.
Learn More
Stage 6 · Adults
B4E — Bikes for Employees
We partner with employers so a transportation-insecure employee can get a fitted commuter bike with no money down and pay it back in small deductions.
Learn More