Known as Church Street, the state highway runs 1.54 miles (2.48 km) from MD 2 in Brooklyn Park, Anne Arundel County, east to MD 173 in the Curtis Bay neighborhood of Baltimore.

The state highway heads east as a two-lane undivided street through a densely populated residential neighborhood.

[1][3] After crossing 6th Street, MD 171 enters the city of Baltimore.

After passing through the Curtis Bay neighborhood, the state highway meets its eastern terminus on the edge of the Curtis Bay Industrial Area at MD 173, which is formed by a one-way pair, Pennington Avenue southbound and Curtis Avenue northbound.

[4] The Anne Arundel County portion of MD 171 was paved as a 15-foot (4.6 m) wide concrete road in 1926.