It is two lanes throughout rural Fauquier County with a speed limit of 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) and passes by farms and agricultural areas.

Most of the way through Fauquier County Route 28 runs parallel to Norfolk Southern railroad tracks in order to serve the towns that are placed along them.

Several historical markers can be seen along Route 28 as it passes through Fauquier including Supreme Court Justice John Marshall's birthplace and the raid on Catlett Station.

Historically, the Catlett Fire Department Parade would close Route 28 for several hours each spring, however, this practice was discontinued as traffic became heavier in the 1990s.

[2] SR 28 is a main thoroughfare through Manassas, and separates into a one-way pair of Church and Center Streets in front of a Confederate cemetery.

Up until 2020, the section of VA 28 between Centreville and Chantilly had signalized intersections at I 66, Braddock Road (SR 620), and Ellanor C. Lawrence Park and was only built to expressway standards.

It is still known as Sully Road through this stretch, although within Loudoun County it is co-designated as Darrell Green Boulevard, after the former Washington Commanders Hall of Famer (the team's official headquarters is in Ashburn), whose uniform number was 28.

However, due to extensions, truncations, and partial renumberings, the current SR 28 contains no portion of the earliest routing, which ran near present-day U.S. 29 from Lovingston in Nelson County to Charlottesville.

Fairfax and Loudoun Counties quickly formed the first transportation improvement district in the Commonwealth, by imposing a 20 cent per $100 real estate surcharge on commercial and industrial property located near Route 28.

[9] For a decade there have also been proposals to extend Route 28 to north to connect it with Interstate 370 in Gaithersburg, Maryland over a Techway Bridge across the Potomac River.