The M1 starts at the A406 London North Circular route, and progresses north. It connects with the M25 just north of jcn 6. South of Rugby, the M45 serves Coventry, while the M6 branches off at jcn 19, giving access to the Midlands and the north-west. The M1 continues north and finally ends at the newly constructed link road to the A1, north of Leeds. The remaining motorway into central Leeds is now an extended M621, which then bends south and connects to the M62.
Yet more history. The M1 was the first official motorway in the UK. Slightly earlier the Preston Bypass had been built, largely thanks to a go-ahead council. Partly through this, and partly as the industrial boom of the fifties was rapidly turning into the consumerism boom of the sixties, the first section of the M1 was opened in 1959. At the time, the M1 existed as far as the M45 junction, with the M45 itself taking traffic into the Midlands. At first, it was mainly sightseers and "ton up boys" (young lads on motorbikes taking advantage of the lack of speed limits to take their vehicles well past the 100mph mark). Gradually, more and more vehicles poured onto the tarmac, and when the new section to Leeds was completed, the M1 became the most important north south link road.
Today, the M1 remains one of the most important routes, although to an extent the M40 up to the M42 jcn has taken a lot of Midlands bound traffic away. The best direction for the M1 is northbound, as the branches off (M45, M6) take most of the traffic away, so that after jcn19 all is quiet. Southbound, as all the traffic flows onto the M1, its a different story, with the fiendish jcn 19 making everything unpleasant right down to the M25 jcn, where a lot of it goes away again.
As the M1 is so old, there are lots of things to see, particularly for those interested in the history of road construction. Many of the bridges taking local traffic over the top of the M1 are still the originals, consequently, some amazing architecture can be experienced. A lot of these bridges are curvy concrete structures, that look pretty groovy. Also, a few of the signs have survived intact, so you can see the old curvy route markers and ancient fonts for the route names.
By far the most interesting is the graffiti on the bridges. You see a lot of "GOURANGA" stickers, and on one bridge (nicely painted out by some kind citizen) is a rant against fast food chain McDonalds. My favourite bit of graffiti is (I believe) for a band or group. This is somewhere well to the south of the M6, possibly almost nearly to Hemel, and it can only be seen southbound. It is white paint with little music notes and it says in jaunty writing "The Tea Set". I always look out for this, you know you're almost there when you see that. Anyone know of any more?
The M1 has been renumbered after jcn 43, where the new link to the A1 has been built. The remaining motorway through Leeds has become an extended portion of the M621 which links to the M62 to the south west. Other than that, the M1 has survived intact with no renumbering at all.
From the north south position of the M1, many routes connect with it. Thus north bound, you can branch off at the M6 and head for the Midlands or the north west, even up to Scotland, if you continue to the M74. Staying with the M1, you can leave via the M18, which links to the east via the M180 and M62. Eventually, as the M1 links to the A1, this gives connections to the north east, Teeside and Newcastle, and further on Scotland.
The M1 can be heavy going, particularly if you have to do it regular. Just after I moved to London in 1989, I would drive up on Friday afternoon to my parents house in Yorkshire and then come back down on Sunday night. As a rule I would go north via the M1, and south via the A1 (which I would leave just south of Hatfield Tunnel on the A414). I mentioned earlier that the M1 was much easier going north than south, due to the nature of the roads that link to it. After a while I got to know the M1 really well, picking out sights like "The Tea Set" and things like that. The huge amount of traffic on it at peak times eventually led me to come up with a clever idea for the M1. And it was this.
Build another M1 on the top of the existing one. The top motorway could be a high-speed few jcns expressway. It would no extra land, due to its location, and would have one up and down ramp every 50 miles. The idea would be that you would use the lower M1 for local traffic and traffic which needed to leave in this particular 50 mile stretch. This would make a journey to Leeds from London a much speedier one, as no junctions would interfere, except at every 50 mile up and down ramp (where the speed limit would be decreased to allow for the merging traffic). Sadly, I don't think anyone would like this idea, or it might cost too much or something. I really believe it would be the easiest way of alleviating the horrendous peak time traffic jams. Anyone out there agree with me?