The portion of the route between Main Street in Townsend and Noxontown Road south of Middletown is part of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, a Delaware Byway. DE 71 has an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 29,685 vehicles at the north end of the DE 896 concurrency to a low of 4,533 vehicles at the DE 7 intersection. The portion of DE 71 between Middletown Warwick Road and the north end of the DE 896 concurrency is part of the National Highway System.