The highway runs 17.01 miles (27.37 km) from Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia east to MD 3 in Millersville.

There are plans to expand MD 175 to a multi-lane divided highway through Fort Meade due to increased activity at the Army post.

The state highway expands to six lanes at Dobbin Road and has a partial cloverleaf interchange with Snowden River Parkway that provides access to a park and ride lot serving MTA Maryland commuter buses and a trumpet interchange with Columbia Gateway Drive.

Access from eastbound MD 175 to Columbia Gateway Drive requires using the Snowden River Parkway interchange.

[1][3] MD 175 narrows to a two-lane undivided road as it passes between the Maryland Wholesale Produce Distribution Center to the southwest and the Patuxent Institution on the northeast and enters Jessup.

East of Dorsey Run Road, which leads to the Jessup Auto Distribution Center, the state highway crosses over CSX's Capital Subdivision railroad line and enters Anne Arundel County, where the highway's name changes to Jessup Road.

The highway crosses over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line and meets the southern end of MD 170 (Telegraph Road); the south leg of the intersection, Piney Orchard Parkway, leads to the Odenton station on MARC's Penn Line, which uses the Amtrak tracks.

MD 175 continues as a four-lane undivided highway to a five-legged roundabout at the eastern end of Odenton where the highway meets Odenton Road, Higgins Drive, and Sappington Station Road, which is unsigned MD 32AA.

[1][3] MD 175 is a part of the National Highway System as an intermodal freight transport connector from I-95 to Dorsey Run Road in Jessup and as a principal arterial from US 29 to I-95 through Columbia.

[1][4] The first section of MD 175 was constructed between 1924 and 1926 as a macadam road from US 1 southeast to the entrance of the Maryland House of Correction east of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (now CSX) in Jessup.

[15][16] The highway was widened to a 24-foot (7.3 m) wide road with a concrete base and asphalt surface from Jessup to the MD 713 intersection in 1942.

The highway's trumpet interchange with Columbia Gateway Drive opened with Little Patuxent Parkway.