Tuesday, November 2, 1999 Published at 11:34 GMT
UK The M1: Many happy returns? Almost like a country road: The M1 in 1978
From the moment the M1 was opened, exactly 40 years ago, it was an instant classic.
Indeed so popular did it prove that even decades later, whole families choose to spend their bank holidays together going to see it.
Like films, however, its sequels (M2, M3 etc) never managed quite to recapture the magic, although the M25 went further than any other in rivalling its reputation in folklore.
But to many people the language of the M1 (Scratchwood, Toddington, Newport Pagnell and - who could ever forget - Watford Gap) mean that it will forever have a six-lane place in the heart of the country.
From top to bottom
From Leeds to London, the M1 is 187 miles long.
The first 72-mile stretch from Watford to Rugby was opened by then transport minister Ernest Marples on 2 November, 1959.
Thirteen-thousand cars went for a spin that day, but 100 reportedly broke down, unable to cope with the high speeds (there was no speed limit). The 70mph limit and the MoT certificate were later introduced.
Now the average flow is 88,000 a day.
Between Junction 7 and Junction 10 (Hemel Hempstead and Luton) average flow in summer is heaviest, at 150,000 a day.
The road costs £6.5m a year to maintain.
Engineer Sir Owen Williams, who had made pioneering progress with reinforced concrete in the building of Wembley Stadium in the early 1920s, designed the original bridges.
Last month, 16 cows were killed near Leicester. They wandered on to the northbound carriageway and were hit by a National Express coach. None of the passengers was seriously injured. Forty other cows on the road escaped unhurt.
The M1's service stations have names which have become resonant of the English countryside. Alan Partridge has paid tribute, as has Morrissey, who sang "I left the north again, I travelled south again. . . I lost my bag in Newport Pagnell".
One of Milton Keynes's boasts is that no part of it is more than half-an-hour away from the motorway.
The name Watford Gap now symbolises where the south meets the rest of the country. Watford Gap services are more than 60 miles north of the Watford which most people have heard of. (They are however about one mile south of the village Watford, Northants.)
There is no Junction 3.
A 1973 photo of Scratchwood Services in north London, now known as London Gateway, is featured in the surprise hit book of the season Boring Postcards.
The Office of Fair Trading is currently investigating service stations, after complaints from consumers that the prices charged were far higher than they would be in normal shops. The services operators say however that their costs are higher because they are obliged to provide car parking and round-the-clock toilets.
Despite all the people who have lost their lives in crashes on the UK's motorways, statistics suggest that based on the number of miles travelled they are safer than other roads. This is largely because of the absence of pedestrians, cyclists and side roads.
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