It serves as the southern end of the busy Transit Road in the town of Elma.

NY 187 begins at an intersection with US 20A (Quaker Road) as a continuation of County Route 553 (CR 553).

The highway serves the nearby Bob-O-Link Golf Course prior to entering a stretch of fields in Orchard Park, where it intersects with CR 460 (Milestrip Road), the eastward continuation of NY 179.

NY 187 soon intersects with Reserve Road, an east–west connection from US 20 eastbound, before turning to the northwest and terminating at its own junction with US 20.

[4] When NY 78 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, it initially bypassed the southeastern Buffalo suburbs on a routing that passed through the village of East Aurora, the hamlet of Elma, and the village of Lancaster.