B4E: Bikes for Employees
Getting to work shouldn't depend on paying for a bike up front.
B4E connects working adults with fitted bikes and rider training through participating employers. Riders pay nothing up front and repay through payroll deductions.
A paycheck doesn't always come with a reliable ride.
A worker can have a job and still struggle to get there. One in three Detroit households has no car. Transportation insecurity depends on whether someone can make the trips they need, so income alone does not tell the story. For a worker who can commute by bike, the upfront cost can stand between a job and a workable ride. Access starts with a bike they can afford to begin using.
B4E works through participating employers to connect workers with bikes fitted to them and training to ride. Applicants are assessed for transportation insecurity. They pay nothing up front, then repay through payroll deductions. Those payments return to the fund for the next rider. Your gift adds to a revolving fund that keeps putting bikes within reach as repayments come back in. Employers have a practical way to help workers get to work.
A separate path for working adults
B4E is the adult track alongside the youth programs. It connects workers with fitted bikes, rider training and payroll deductions through participating employers, with repayments returning to the fund for the next rider.
- B4E
How B4E works
Apply through an employer
Participating employers include the City of Detroit, Wayne State University and Henry Ford Health. Applicants are assessed for transportation insecurity.
Get fitted and trained
Each rider receives a bike fitted to them and training, preparing them to start using it for transportation.
Start without paying upfront
Riders pay nothing up front and repay through payroll deductions, spreading the bike purchase across their paychecks.
Fund the next rider
Repayments go back into the fund to support the next rider, so the same fund can keep financing bikes.
Donate to B4E
Your gift adds to the revolving bike fund, helping workers start riding with nothing to pay up front.
Help Detroit workers get a bike for the commute.
Just getting started
Goal $12,000
One Employee
$1,200
A bike, kit, fitting and training for one transportation-insecure worker.
An Employer Partnership
$12,000
Ten riders, and a revolving fund that carries on after them.
Costs shown are estimates while we finalise per-school pricing.
Gifts go to the program named here wherever possible. Where that program is not yet running, your gift goes to the area of greatest need.