Through a long and widely varied career in the highway field, "Dutch" Reid was most prominent as a traffic planner. As Detroit's traffic engineer in the 1940's, he set up the city's first parking authority and was a leading architect of the city-county-state agreements that laid the foundation for the area's freeway network. The success of his programs to improve traffic movement led to his appointment in 1950 as New York City's first traffic commissioner and later to national prominence as a traffic planner and consultant. Reid ended his ten years with the Department of State highways (1933-1943) as state highway commissioner.