M1 Traffic on Wednesdays

By the middle of the week the M1 settles into a pattern: commuting peaks at either end of the day around Luton, Leicester, Sheffield and Leeds, with long-distance freight filling the hours between.

Here you can see whether the latest Wednesday followed that pattern. Each chart covers one direction from midnight to midnight, and the dashed line shows how the same Wednesday a week ago compared.

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M1 on Wednesdays: Wednesday 21 October 2026, so far

How traffic on the M1 has moved hour by hour today so far, compared with the same day a week earlier (Wednesday 14 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.

02:00 (2am)

Southbound · slowest hour against usual

average 56 mph across the road, against a usual 55 mph; the same hour last week 57 mph.

04:00 (4am)

Northbound · slowest hour against usual

average 59 mph across the road, against a usual 57 mph; the same hour last week 59 mph.

19:00 (7pm)

Northbound · slowest stretch

J6–J6A 11 mph, against a usual 59 mph.

21:00 (9pm)

Southbound · slowest stretch

J9–J10 6 mph, against a usual 64 mph.

Across the day

Northbound · stop-start

J17–J18 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 90 minutes (1.5 hours), between 00:00 (midnight) and 06:00 (6am).

Northbound · against last week

about the same as last Wednesday: average 62 mph over 23 hours, against 61 mph in the same hours.

Southbound · stop-start

J36–J37 traffic below 15 mph somewhere on this stretch for about 130 minutes (2.17 hours), between 00:00 (midnight) and 05:00 (5am).

Southbound · against last week

about the same as last Wednesday: average 61 mph over 23 hours, against 61 mph in the same hours.

Northbound: average speed by hour

Southbound: average speed by hour

Wednesday 21 October 2026 (so far)Wednesday 14 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 23 hours of Wednesday 21 October 2026 and 23 of Wednesday 14 October 2026. 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.