The route is short in distance at 8.7 km, goes from downtown San José, north of Casco Central (downtown area), through the districts of Cinco Esquinas, San Juan of Tibás canton, and Santo Domingo, Santo Tomás, Santa Rosa, of Santo Domingo canton, and San Pablo canton, ending in Heredia district.
The route is also an east parallel alternative to the San José to Heredia segment of Route 3.
On 23 March 2020, the Heredia terminus section was bifurcated to improve the traffic, by making Route 5 into an Heredia outbound section, and annexing 1.5 km of the immediate north road, Avenida Joaquín Rodríguez, as Heredia inbound section, with a new semaphore at the joining point with Route 3. This bifurcation provides two lanes in each way, but the right lane will be for public transportation exclusive use at peak traffic hours (06:00-08:30 and 15:00-19:00). Both sections converge at the Route 5 and Calle 35 point, to one lane in each direction.[1][2]