Businesses along Solano Avenue cover a wide range, including grocery stores, coffee shops, drugstores, bookstores, antique dealers, apparel outlets, ethnic restaurants and a movie theater.

Solano Avenue begins, at its western end, on the southern slope of Albany Hill, next to the I-80/I-580 interchange and Union Pacific railroad tracks.

Between the Albany city limits and The Alameda, Solano Avenue is the main shopping area of Berkeley's Thousand Oaks neighborhood.

Local businesses and vendors set up booths along both sides of the street and sell clothing, jewelry, art and food items to the public; in recent times, theatre troupes, puppet shows and amusement rides have also been a part of the festival.

School jazz, classical and marching bands from Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany and Berkeley have also appeared at the Stroll since its early years.

Around 300,000 people were attributed by organizers to have attended the 2009 festival, a number largely overshadowed by vacant Solano Avenue storefronts and the late 2000s economic downturn.

On the north side of this junction, the Southern Pacific constructed an electric sub-station whose legacy survives in the name of a small cul-de-sac behind the former site of the building (now demolished).

After the SP abandoned its electric trains in 1941, the rival Key System took over the tracks of the Shattuck Avenue line through the Northbrae Tunnel, but terminating at a stop east of The Alameda.

After the Key System abandoned its train service to San Francisco in 1958, and upon the opening of the Northbrae Tunnel to auto traffic in 1962, AC Transit ran its F and 33 bus lines to the former Key System stop east of The Alameda, with alternate runs continuing down Solano to a terminus at San Pablo.