It is signed with north–south cardinal directions but is actually a northeast and southwest diagonal highway throughout the state.
The route serves the North Carolina Piedmont, including the cities of Charlotte, Salisbury, High Point, and Greensboro.
US 29 starts in Grover as a two-lane rural road where it intersects with North Carolina Highway 226 (NC 226) shortly after.
US 29/US 74 offers access to Charlotte Douglas International Airport before intersecting with Billy Graham Parkway.
Afterward, US 29/NC 49 turns into a boulevard going east on Dalton Avenue and then north on Tryon Street.
Eventually, US 29/NC 49 intersects Old Concord Road where the Lynx Blue Line runs between the northbound and southbound lanes.
Here, the Lynx Blue Line goes under the northbound lanes of US 29 to offer access to UNC Charlotte while US 29 continues as a boulevard toward Concord.
Before heading toward Concord, US 29 offers access to Charlotte Motor Speedway before meeting at an interchange with George Liles Parkway.
US 29, now all alone, goes through the northeastern suburbs of Greensboro where it intersects with I-785 and will run concurrently with I-785 past the Virginia state line once modifications to the existing US 29 are completed.
Established in 1927, it ran from the South Carolina state line to US 74 in Kings Mountain, with a concurrency with NC 205.
Also around same time, US 29 was moved onto new bypass east of Kings Mountain, extending NC 216 over its old route; then in Charlotte, it moved onto I-85 between Little Rock Road (exit 32) and the University City area (exit 42), old route through Charlotte as US 29 Bus.
It began at the intersection of Trade and Tryon streets in Charlotte, traversing northeast, in concurrency with NC 15 to Concord, Kannapolis, and Salisbury.
Heading northeast, it went through Reidsville, Ruffin, and finally Pelham before crossing into Virginia toward Danville and eventually Lynchburg.
This plan, according to the state, will simplify overhead signage on the freeway and eliminate route redundancies.