M1 Traffic on Fridays

Friday is the day many people expect the M1 to be at its worst: commuters going home, families heading for the Midlands, Yorkshire or the coast, and students travelling to and from Loughborough, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds.

The charts show whether the latest Friday lived up to that, hour by hour, northbound and southbound, against the Friday before and the usual speed.

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M1 on Fridays: Friday 16 October 2026

How traffic on the M1 has moved hour by hour, compared with the same day a week earlier (Friday 9 October 2026) and with National Highways’ usual speed for each hour. Updated every five minutes.

Speeds are colour-coded the same way as our live M1 speed flow map: 50 mph and over, 30 mph to 49 mph, under 30 mph. The colour shows the speed actually achieved; the usual speed is shown in bold beside it.

03:00 (3am)

Southbound · slowest hour against usual

average 59 mph across the road, against a usual 56 mph.

11:00 (11am)

Northbound · slowest stretch

J6A–J8 4 mph, against a usual 61 mph.

14:00 (2pm)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 56 mph across the road, against a usual 54 mph.

22:00 (10pm)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J9–J10 13 mph, against a usual 64 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J22–J23 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 175 minutes (2.92 hours), between 14:00 (2pm) and 22:00 (10pm).

Southbound · stop-start

J14–J15 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 105 minutes (1.75 hours), between 04:00 (4am) and 06:00 (6am).

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Friday 16 October 2026Friday 9 October 2026usual speed (National Highways)

How we worked this out. We regularly take National Highways’ live speed data for each stretch of the M1 and keep the average for each hour. These figures cover 24 hours of Friday 16 October 2026 and 1 of Friday 9 October 2026 (hours with no readings are left out). Hours are UK time. A speed shown for the whole road is the average across its stretches, so a short queue may not move it much: the cards point to the slowest stretches.

© 2026 Corporate Ace Limited. The analysis, wording, charts and conclusions on this page are our own, produced from the live information we collect, including National Highways’ data. You may not copy, republish or reproduce them on any website, app, broadcast or publication without our prior written permission, which must set out how and where they will be used. To ask, please contact us. Powered by National Highways’ Transport Data Feeds.

The M1 on Other Days

For the road right now, see the live M1 speed flow map and the latest M1 traffic news, or look up any junction on the M1 junctions page.