Stories about a Detroit man who walked 34 kilometres each day to and from work have raised more than $300,000 and a shiny new car for him in less than a week.

James Robertson, 56, said he was overwhelmed by the public response to his daily trek to and from work.

“This was really welcomed,” Robertson told the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t know what to tell you, except that you guys are the heroes.”

Robertson’s story struck a deep chord in Detroit and across the U.S.

The factory worker, who hasn’t been late or missed a day of work in 12 years, was forced to make the hike five days a week because he could not afford to maintain a car on his $10.55-an-hour job.

Public transit didn’t cover his entire route.

His weekday trek began at 8 a.m. when he headed off to work. He arrived home from work at 4 a.m. and admitted to being sleep-deprived and sleeping a lot on the weekend, the Free Press reports.

Reading that was enough to get Evan Leedy, 19, a Wayne State University student in computer science, to set up a crowdfunding site.

“I just used my phone,” Leedy posted on his site. “I created the go-funding site and within an hour we had $2,000.”

Robertson’s story originally ran on the front page of the Detroit Free Press last Saturday.

By Friday afternoon, the social-media campaign had netted promises of $310,655 in donations, as well as offers of rides and cars.

A Detroit dealership offered him a fully-loaded 2015 red Taurus.

All of the support left Robertson visibly moved.

“Forget Los Angeles, Detroit is the real city of angels,” Robertson told the Free Press.

“I never really expected this type of support,” he said. “Let’s all look out for each other. Stay classy, you hear.”

His story also ignited a debate on Twitter about how better to serve working people with public transit.

“Buying a car was nice,” wrote Liz Treutel, one of hundreds of people touched by his story online. “Buying a mass-transit system would be way nicer.”

“#JamesRobertson’s commute is a personal triumph, but shows how we’ve failed the working poor,” posted Kali Hawk.

“I’m glad the world is hearing the story of #JamesRobertson who represents so many Black folks of this generation and generations before him,” posted Rashad Drakeford.

“It’s people like #JamesRobertson that make me proud to be a Detroiter,” posted Ali B. “Hard work knows no bounds in this city.”

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Robertson works eight hours a day at a moulding parts factory on the 2-10 p.m. shift. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Some stories noted that car-insurance rates for Detroit are particularly high, often higher than car payments.

A survey late last month found Detroit to have the highest car insurance rates in the U.S.