22 sensors · 1 May 2026 to 15 June 2026

The best time to drive the M1

Name: M1 congestion by hour of week
Creator: National Highways
License: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

GOSunday 07:00Quietest daytime hour, 62 mph average

AVOIDTuesday 08:00Slowest daytime hour, 53 mph average

Photo: Lewis Clarke, Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0, resized

The quietest daytime hour on the M1 is Sunday at 07:00, averaging 62 mph. The worst is Tuesday at 08:00, averaging 53 mph. Measured from National Highways roadside sensors between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026, not estimated.

Measured, not estimated
Daytime 06:00 to 22:00

The whole week at a glance

Darker means slower

Average speed on the M1 for each hour of the week, shaded by how far below normal it runs.
Day	00	1	2	3	4	5	06	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
Mon	Mon 00:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Mon 01:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Mon 02:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Mon 03:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Mon 04:00, 59 mph, 2% below normal	Mon 05:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Mon 06:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Mon 07:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Mon 08:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Mon 09:00, 56 mph, 9% below normal	Mon 10:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Mon 11:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Mon 12:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Mon 13:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Mon 14:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Mon 15:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Mon 16:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Mon 17:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Mon 18:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Mon 19:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Mon 20:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Mon 21:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Mon 22:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Mon 23:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal
Tue	Tue 00:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Tue 01:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Tue 02:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Tue 03:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Tue 04:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Tue 05:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Tue 06:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Tue 07:00, 54 mph, 12% below normal	Tue 08:00, 53 mph, 12% below normal	Tue 09:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Tue 10:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Tue 11:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Tue 12:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Tue 13:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Tue 14:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Tue 15:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Tue 16:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Tue 17:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Tue 18:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Tue 19:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Tue 20:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Tue 21:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Tue 22:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Tue 23:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal
Wed	Wed 00:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 01:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 02:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 03:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Wed 04:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Wed 05:00, 59 mph, 2% below normal	Wed 06:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Wed 07:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 08:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Wed 09:00, 56 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 10:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Wed 11:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Wed 12:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Wed 13:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Wed 14:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 15:00, 56 mph, 9% below normal	Wed 16:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Wed 17:00, 54 mph, 11% below normal	Wed 18:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Wed 19:00, 59 mph, 2% below normal	Wed 20:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Wed 21:00, 57 mph, 5% below normal	Wed 22:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Wed 23:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal
Thu	Thu 00:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Thu 01:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Thu 02:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Thu 03:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Thu 04:00, 57 mph, 5% below normal	Thu 05:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Thu 06:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Thu 07:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Thu 08:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Thu 09:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Thu 10:00, 56 mph, 7% below normal	Thu 11:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Thu 12:00, 56 mph, 9% below normal	Thu 13:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Thu 14:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Thu 15:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Thu 16:00, 54 mph, 11% below normal	Thu 17:00, 53 mph, 12% below normal	Thu 18:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Thu 19:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Thu 20:00, 58 mph, 3% below normal	Thu 21:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Thu 22:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Thu 23:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal
Fri	Fri 00:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Fri 01:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Fri 02:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Fri 03:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Fri 04:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Fri 05:00, 59 mph, 2% below normal	Fri 06:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Fri 07:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Fri 08:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Fri 09:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Fri 10:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Fri 11:00, 56 mph, 8% below normal	Fri 12:00, 56 mph, 9% below normal	Fri 13:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Fri 14:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Fri 15:00, 55 mph, 10% below normal	Fri 16:00, 54 mph, 10% below normal	Fri 17:00, 55 mph, 9% below normal	Fri 18:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Fri 19:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Fri 20:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Fri 21:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Fri 22:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Fri 23:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal
Sat	Sat 00:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Sat 01:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Sat 02:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Sat 03:00, 57 mph, 5% below normal	Sat 04:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Sat 05:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sat 06:00, 61 mph, 0% below normal	Sat 07:00, 61 mph, 0% below normal	Sat 08:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sat 09:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sat 10:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sat 11:00, 57 mph, 7% below normal	Sat 12:00, 57 mph, 6% below normal	Sat 13:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sat 14:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Sat 15:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Sat 16:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sat 17:00, 59 mph, 4% below normal	Sat 18:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Sat 19:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sat 20:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sat 21:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sat 22:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Sat 23:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal
Sun	Sun 00:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 01:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 02:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 03:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 04:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Sun 05:00, 61 mph, -1% below normal	Sun 06:00, 62 mph, -2% below normal	Sun 07:00, 62 mph, -2% below normal	Sun 08:00, 61 mph, -1% below normal	Sun 09:00, 61 mph, 0% below normal	Sun 10:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Sun 11:00, 59 mph, 4% below normal	Sun 12:00, 58 mph, 4% below normal	Sun 13:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sun 14:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sun 15:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sun 16:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sun 17:00, 58 mph, 5% below normal	Sun 18:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 19:00, 59 mph, 3% below normal	Sun 20:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sun 21:00, 60 mph, 1% below normal	Sun 22:00, 60 mph, 2% below normal	Sun 23:00, 59 mph, 2% below normal

FasterSlower

Each square or bar is one hour, shaded by how far below its normal speed that stretch runs. Hover or tap for the exact figure, or pick Table for every number.

Rush hour on the M1

Weekdays, from the sensor archive

MORNING RUSH HOUR

No clear rush hour

Weekday traffic stays within a few percent of normal speed at this time of day.

EVENING RUSH HOUR

No clear rush hour

Weekday traffic stays within a few percent of normal speed at this time of day.

The rush hour is the run of hours around the weekday peak that are at least halfway from the road’s usual midday level up to the peak. Rush hour times on every road.

Your commute on the M1

What changing your leaving time is worth

How much the hour matters

Daytime only, 06:00 to 22:00

Weekend against weekday

Average speed at each day’s worst hour

Weekend57 mph

Weekday54 mph

Bars run from 0 to 62 mph, the road’s best daytime hour.

Minutes you save

Sunday 07:00
62 mph49 min

Tuesday 08:00
53 mph56 min

7 minsaved on a 50-mile trip

Other trip lengths: 10 miles saves 1 min, 25 miles saves 4 min. Worked out from the average speed along the whole M1 at each hour, so a trip through its worst junction at rush hour loses more than this.

How many vehicles use the M1?

Department for Transport counts, 2025

On a typical stretch

120,000 a day

Both directions added together, averaged over 2025.

Busiest stretch, near J9

162,000 a day

Lorries are about 13% of all traffic on the M1.

From the Department for Transport’s road traffic statistics for the 97 stretches of the M1 in England. “Typical” means half the road’s length carries more than this and half less. DfT counted 90% of these stretches in 2025 and estimated the rest from earlier counts. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Roads that meet the M1

The best time to drive each

Traffic near places on the M1

From the sensors in each area

The M1 on camera

Real photos, credited, never stock

The M1: St Albans City and District : M1 Motorway — **The M1**Photo: Lewis Clarke, Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0, resized

Dashcam view on the M1 — **Dashcam on the M1**Taken Sunday, 3 May 2026 at 4:57pm, UK timePhoto: mappo2, Mapillary, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized

The M1 road card

The picture people see when this page is shared

Where the M1 slows down

Sensor by sensor, in junction order

NormalMuch slower

Northbound, slowest: about 700 m from junction 13, Ridgmont Interchange, in Central Bedfordshire, 53 mph (11% below normal)
Southbound, slowest: about 900 m from junction 5, Berrygrove, in Watford, 36 mph (48% below normal)

Each dot is one roadside sensor, placed at its nearest junction, so the line shows the order of junctions rather than distance. 20 of 22 sensors are shown; the rest have no junction close enough to name, or sit on a slip road facing another way.

The hour to avoid, day by day

Daytime only, 06:00 to 22:00

SunAvoid 13:00 (58 mph)Clearest 07:00

MonAvoid 08:00 (55 mph)Clearest 19:00

TueAvoid 08:00 (53 mph)Clearest 19:00

WedAvoid 17:00 (54 mph)Clearest 19:00

ThuAvoid 17:00 (53 mph)Clearest 19:00

FriAvoid 16:00 (54 mph)Clearest 19:00

SatAvoid 11:00 (57 mph)Clearest 07:00

The hour to avoid is listed first because it is the one that actually varies. The clearest hour tends to be whichever end of the day you look at, so on most roads it lands on the last hour before the cut-off and says the same thing every weekday. Night is excluded for the same reason: 3am is fastest on every road in the country, which is true and useless.

The five quietest daytime hours

Sunday 07:0062mph

Running at its normal speed · about 909 vehicles an hour

Sunday 06:0062mph

Running at its normal speed · about 721 vehicles an hour

Sunday 08:0061mph

Running at its normal speed · about 1,286 vehicles an hour

Saturday 07:0061mph

Running at its normal speed · about 1,357 vehicles an hour

Sunday 09:0061mph

Running at its normal speed · about 1,750 vehicles an hour

Day by day on the M1

Every hour of each day

By direction on the M1

Each way, on its own

Questions about the M1

When is the best time to drive the M1?

The quietest daytime hour on the M1 is Sunday at 07:00, when traffic averages 62 mph. The next clearest hours are Sunday at 06:00, Sunday at 08:00, Saturday at 07:00. These are measured averages from National Highways roadside sensors on the road itself, recorded between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026, rather than estimates or predictions. Daytime means 06:00 to 22:00 here, because 3am is the fastest hour on almost every road in England, which is true and useless for planning a journey. Roadworks, collisions and weather are not part of the average, so this describes the road's typical rhythm rather than a forecast for any particular day.

When is the M1 at its busiest?

The slowest daytime hour on the M1 is Tuesday at 08:00, averaging 53 mph, about 12% below the speed the road runs at when it is clear. The other hours worth avoiding are Thursday at 17:00, Tuesday at 07:00, Thursday at 16:00. Because the comparison is against this stretch's own free-flowing speed, "slower" here always means slower than the M1 normally runs, not slower than some national average. Measured from roadside sensors between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026. It is an archive of what usually happens, so it cannot account for an incident on the day you travel.

Is the M1 quieter at the weekend?

At its worst hour, the M1 averages 57 mph on a weekend day against 54 mph on a weekday. So the weekend is the quieter time to travel, by roughly 3 mph at the worst point of the day. Both figures are averages measured from roadside sensors between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026, not live readings.

What time should I avoid on the M1 each day?

The hour to avoid moves through the week. On the M1 the slowest daytime hour is: Monday 08:00 (55 mph), Tuesday 08:00 (53 mph), Wednesday 17:00 (54 mph), Thursday 17:00 (53 mph), Friday 16:00 (54 mph), Saturday 11:00 (57 mph), Sunday 13:00 (58 mph). The busy hour is listed rather than the clear one because it is the figure that actually varies: the clearest hour tends to land at one end of the day on almost every road, so it says much less about this one. All figures are averages from National Highways roadside sensors between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026.

How are these times measured?

Every figure comes from National Highways roadside sensors, the WebTRIS network, which count vehicles and record average speeds on the carriageway itself. Readings between 1 May 2026 and 15 June 2026 were grouped by day of the week and hour, then compared against the road's own free-flowing speed. This is an archive rather than a live feed: it describes the pattern the M1 usually follows, and it does not know about a collision, roadworks or bad weather today. Always check live conditions before you set off, and never check them while driving. The underlying data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Best time to drive other roads

40 more with sensor history

See what is closed on the M1 now