The LRT Line 1 elevated railway is built above the street throughout its entire length, and several jeepneys ply the area, taking passengers from Caloocan, Quezon City, and Valenzuela.

Vehicles from Samson Road (EDSA's logical western extension) enter the avenue to its southbound carriageway.

It also occupied the old Calle Cervantes, Calzada de San Lazaro, and Camino á Gagalaḡin in Santa Cruz.

[2][3] Once planned to terminate at the Manila Chinese Cemetery at the north,[4] the road was lengthened in the next two decades up to the adjacent then-municipality of Caloocan, then part of Rizal province, where the then-new monument honoring Andres Bonifacio, now known as Monumento, is located.

Before and right after World War II, the avenue was center of the city's social life, with the street lined with shops, restaurants and movie theaters.

[10] Two National Artists for Architecture, Pablo Antonio and Juan Nakpil, created several movie theaters along the avenue.

The construction of the LRTA Line 1 system in the 1980s, which required the closure of Rizal Avenue to vehicular traffic, essentially killed business along the route.

[11] On September 15, 2016, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada declared a parking ban on the avenue's stretch in the city.

[13][14][15] In 2000, during the term of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, the stretch from Recto Avenue to Carriedo Street was transformed into a pedestrian-only area by paving the road with bricks as part of an urban renewal project.

[16] On July 17, 2007, Lim attended the ceremony reopening the closed portion of Rizal Avenue, and it has remained open to this day.