During rush hours, the parkway is converted to one-way traffic corresponding to the peak direction of travel: southbound in the morning and northbound in the afternoon.

[4] The Parkway has two points of origination on its southern end, one at the traffic circle around the Lincoln Memorial, and the other at the intersection of Ohio Drive and Independence Avenue.

The eastern portion of the Lincoln Memorial traffic circle has been closed for several years, and there is no longer any easy access to the northbound parkway from that point.

[1] The parkway's entrance is framed by two monumental statues, Music and Harvest and Aspiration and Literature, which together form a group known as The Arts of Peace.

Beyond F Street, the parkway runs past the Watergate building; there it intersects Virginia Avenue, which provides easy access to and from the Potomac River Freeway (I-66).

A left turn from southbound Rock Creek Parkway provides access to Beach Drive from local roads.

[8] The changeover requires four to five United States Park Police officers to travel the length of the parkway on motorcycle, manually placing barricades and cones and directing traffic.

As each changeover takes 30 minutes, in practice the effective time of one-way operation is roughly two hours per day in each direction.

In 2024, a Department of Transportation study found that crashes are disproportionately higher during the one-way periods, due to the heavy traffic and antiquated construction of the parkway, and identified several other design and signage factors that contribute to driver confusion.

The Rock Creek Park Trail runs along the Parkway from the Lincoln Memorial to Connecticut Avenue, where it continues along Beach Drive to Broad Branch Road.

[14][15] In 1971, the Park Service set aside a lane of the Parkway north of Virginia Avenue for a week to promote commuting by bicycle.