Though his office is three miles from home and he has a short commute, Leesburg resident Ken Reid is doing what he can to improve the county’s transportation infrastructure.
Reid’s activism started in 1994, the year he and his wife Lynn married and bought a house in Bethesda, Md. At the time, Reid worked out of his home for Washington Information Source Co., a publisher of four trade publications focused on the medical and pharmaceutical industries he founded in 1991.
"I will never buy a house on a street with a double yellow line again," Reid said. He took up his cause when Lynn was pregnant with their twin son and daughter, who are now age 7. He wanted them to be able to ride their bikes on Montrose Road, the street where they had lived. But the street was used as a cut-through, had congestion problems and was a speeding area.
REID’S CAUSE started with his founding of Montgomerians Opposed to Vehicle Entanglement (MOVE) and continued with his involvement in Marylanders for a Second Crossing Inc. and the Rapid Transit Action Committee.
In Bethesda, Reid encouraged his neighbors to sign a petition to get speed humps installed along Montrose Road, but several of them refused to sign. They told him he should have known about the road before moving in. What they really wanted was to stop progress unless they were the benefactors, Reid said. "I started to get more heavily involved because there was an angry minority trying to stop this road," he said.
Reid went against the will of his neighbors to support construction of Montrose Parkway, a proposed parkway that eventually will parallel Montrose Road. To get the parkway built, Reid fought against environmental extremists and Nimbys, meaning Not in My Backyard, who ostracized him and engaged in name-calling, he said.
Reid formed MOVE in 1997 to work with officials, planners and civic groups, advocating for the parkway’s construction — a project expected to be completed in the next three to four years — and to improve public transit in North Bethesda.
"That shows you how long it would have taken me to get traffic off my street," he said, adding, "What I was involved with in Montgomery County was not unusual for the Washington, D.C. area."
In 2000, Reid took up an interest in the Potomac River crossing. He helped found Marylanders for a Second Crossing Inc. to promote discussion and planning for various river crossings and organized a grass-roots citizens group of about 1,000 residents. But in May 2001, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R) pulled the plug on a study of the issue, putting an end to the group’s efforts, Reid said.
"Ken’s incredible at being able to network with people," said Tom Reinheimer, a Germantown, Md. resident who helped Reid start Marylanders for a Second Crossing Inc. and push transportation issues. "With the background he has … he can gather quite a bit of information."
Reid provides information that may not be "brought out on the table," said Reinheimer, who works full time in information systems security and part-time as an independent transportation activist. "If there weren’t people like Ken, there wouldn’t be anyone challenging some of this people put out as fact."
IN 2002, Reid and Lynn moved to Leesburg, a more affordable place to locate an office and for them to purchase a larger home, he said, adding, "I was tired of traffic. I was tired of being on a cut-through street."
Now that he is three miles from work, Reid bikes to his office in the spring and summer months. "I practice what others preach," he said. He finds that though Loudoun County provides new school facilities to keep up with growth, the county is not doing the same for its highways and roadways.
"We need new highways like we need everything else. Highways don’t create sprawl. It’s developers and planners who do that," Reid said. "It’s the marketplace that determines where people live and work, not roads. Roads facilitate development."
In 2002, company owner Tom Hirst hired Reid as a field coordinator for the Reston-based Rapid Transit Action Committee, a part-time paid position Reid held until October 2003 and his only paid activism position.
Reid used grass-roots efforts and the media to bring attention to the cost of building rail in the Dulles Corridor versus the cost of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
"I think he is driven by the frustration that there are some very good answers to solving transportation problems that are being ignored," said Hirst, president and third-generation owner of Mason Hirst Companies in Reston. "He shares a concern all of us have about the economics of transportation. How do you [get] the best use out of the limited money we have in the public sector?"
Rail is expected to cost $26 million a year in operation costs, a "waste of money" that does not do anything to decongest roadways, Reid said. "The idea we’re going to be able to put all of the future population of D.C., Maryland and Virginia at [transit stations] is ridiculous."
Reid, who is not against the idea of rail and at one time supported the purple rail line and advocated for monorail, does not see it as the best option for Loudoun County. "I still believe rail would have to be extended here very slowly, but it’s old technology. It does not service the modern world," he said.
After leaving the paid position, Reid remained involved in the Rapid Transit Action Committee. He also promotes preserving the right-of-way for the Western Transportation Corridor, a proposed north-south route from Rivercreek Parkway and Route 7 to Interstate 95 in Stafford County, and of building a section of the Battlefield Parkway bypass from Sycolin Road in Leesburg to Route 7. "If you get rid of a right-of-way, it’s difficult to get it back," he said.
REID’S ACTIVISM is personal but also for a cause, he said. He found that, as a general rule, environmentalists and Smart Growth advocates refused to work with him on the transportation projects he advocated, he said. Instead, "they got local government and planners to buy into their bull," he said. "I really, really have a problem with people putting out lies, myths and distortions to support their vested interests."
"I try to learn who’s involved as independent … advocates for transportation not trying to sell a program or product," said Christopher Walker, a Middleburg resident who works in commercial office development in Reston. "Ken and I are independents looking out for the public’s interest."
Walker finds Reid to be "insightful and objective." "He understands the nuts and bolts of transportation technology but also the personalities and politics of transportation policy. You have to understand the basics and how the basics are applied," he said. "There are very few independent people like Ken who are activists. Most people are on someone’s payroll trying to sell something."
Activism for Reid is like a hobby. "I’ve always been an involved person, interested in doing something for the community," he said.
Reid is a member of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, the Loudoun County Republican Committee, the Loudoun Jewish Congregation and the Tavistock Farms Homeowners Association.