It forms what is somewhat akin to an inner ring road (albeit mostly two-lane only).

A new retail development, Childers Road Retail Park has been built at this junction, and some of Childers Road upgraded to 3 or 4 lanes.

Until the opening of the M7 Southern Ring Road (a dual-carriageway running further from the city linking the M7, N18, M20/N21 and N24 roads), the Childers road carried traffic attempting to skirt past Limerick between these routes, in addition to city traffic to and between the various suburbs along the route (e.g. between Castletroy and Raheen).

The road thus earned the title "Limerick's car park", and would feature each morning and evening on traffic reports.

The Bus Éireann 308 bus route (city centre to Castletroy/University of Limerick) has a stop on Childers Road near the Bloodmill Road junction.