M1 motorway (Great Britain)

M1
Route information
Part of E13
Length:	193.5 mi (311.4 km)
Existed:	1959–60 – present
History:	Completed in 1999
Major junctions
South end:	London A406 (A406) 51°34′32″N 0°14′06″W / 51.5755°N 0.2351°W / 51.5755; -0.2351 (M1 Motorway (southern end))
	J6a → M25 motorway J17 → M45 motorway J19 → M6 motorway J21 → M69 motorway J32 → M18 motorway J42 → M62 motorway J43 → M621 motorway J48 → A1(M) motorway
North end:	Hook Moor (A1(M)) 53°49′22″N 1°20′20″W / 53.8229°N 1.3388°W / 53.8229; -1.3388 (M1 motorway (northern end))
Location
Primary destinations:	London Edgware Aylesbury Watford St Albans Luton Milton Keynes Northampton Rugby Leicester Loughborough Birmingham Coventry Nottingham Derby Mansfield Chesterfield Sheffield Rotherham Manchester Barnsley Wakefield Bradford Leeds Wetherby York
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

A5-M1 Link (Dunstable Northern Bypass)

The route of the Dunstable Northern Bypass proposal and route options for the connecting Luton Northern Bypass.
Location	Central Bedfordshire
Proposer	Highways Agency
Status	Under Construction (ETA summer 2017)
Type	Road
Cost estimate	£171 million to £217 million
Start date	2014–2015
Completion date	2016–2017
Geometry	KML

The M1 is a south-north motorway in England connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the Preston By-pass, which later became part of the M6.

The motorway is 193 miles (311 km) long and was constructed in four phases. Most of the motorway was opened between 1959 and 1968 but the southern end was extended in 1977 and the northern end was extended in 1999. It forms part of the unsigned European route E13.

There had been plans since before the Second World War for a motorway network in the United Kingdom. Lord Montagu formed a company to build a 'motorway like road' from London to Birmingham in 1923; however it was a further 26 years before the Special Roads Act 1949 was passed which allowed for the construction of roads limited to specific vehicle classifications, and the 1950s when the country's first motorways were given the government go-ahead.

The first section of motorway was the Preston Bypass in Lancashire, which opened in 1958 (now part of the M6 motorway). The M1 was Britain's first full-length motorway and opened in 1959. The early M1 had no speed limits, no central reservation or crash barriers, and no lighting.