The street forms a one-way couplet with nearby Davey Street connecting traffic from the Southern Outlet in the south with traffic from the Tasman Highway to the east and the Brooker Highway to the north of the city.

With annual average daily traffic of 28,500,[1] the road is one of the busier streets in Hobart.

The intersections on the one-way portion of the street are regulated by synchronised traffic lights.

[3][4] At the time the couplet system was intended to be a stop gap measure before the then proposed Northside Freeway could be completed.

Since the completion of the couplet in 1987, there has been no alternative route between the Southern outlet and the other major arterial roads in Hobart.