Certain portions or bypasses of A-roads may be designated as motorways, the name of these portions being given the suffix "(M)". On the first Monday since the coronavirus alert level was downgraded, the BBC visited the UK's first motorway services to test its pulse and to find out where its visitors were heading to. But there's now more than 400 miles of smart motorway in the UK, including many without hard shoulders. The M42 was the first smart motorway to use active traffic management. Hauliers were now raising concerns that a ban on private properties adjoining the motorway would mean there would be nowhere suitable for them to take a break, and that this meant they would have to stick to the old, congested A5 they knew well. Britain’s first stretch of motorway, the M6 near Preston, was opened on this day in 1958. As more service stations opened, the number of operating companies increased, such as Blue Boar, Kenning Motor Group, Pavilion, Take a Break and Esso. History. 60% of consumers achieved £1,000 or more with Motorway than their part exchange or initial dealer quote. The first major motorway to open was the M1 between Crick and Berrygrove. The first service area in the UK was at Watford Gap on the M1, which opened with the motorway on 2 November 1959. The first full-length motorway in the UK was the M1 motorway. The traffic management technique, including hard shoulder running, was first used in its full specification in the UK on the M42 motorway in the West Midlands in 2006. An example is the A1(M). A higher speed limit of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) was trialled on the southbound carriageway between junctions 4 and 3A from 2008 (a 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) increase on the previous maximum permissible speed). Which UK motorways are smart? Its first section, which ran from St Albans to Rugby, opened in December 1959. *Based on a survey of 2,535 customers who sold their car on Motorway in 2020, analysed and independently verified by Blue Yonder Research in February 2021. The M1 – Britain's first full-length motorway – has turned 50 this year. Sections of these motorways are all lane running (with no hard shoulder) or are under construction: David Barnett offers his own ode to the road that has played such a big part in his life In 1958 the first motorway was opened as the Preston Bypass which is now part of the M6 motorway. Although post-test motorway courses are available to new drivers, driving lessons on motorways had been prohibited until this year. Shorter motorways typically take their numbers from a parent motorway in contravention of the zone system, explaining the apparently anomalous numbers of the M48 and M49 motorways as spurs of the M4, and M271 and M275 motorways as those of the M27. For new drivers, driving on a motorway for the first time can be extremely challenging. When Were the First UK Motorways Built? The Preston Bypass, the UK's first motorway, should have been numbered A6(M) under the scheme decided upon, but it was decided to keep the number M6 as had already been applied. It was early 1958 and the opening of the first section of the M1 was set to revolutionise travel between London and The Midlands. Which motorways don't have a hard shoulder?