THE quickest way from A to B, or an infuriating part-time car park?

Love it or hate it, the motorway has cause for celebration.

Today marks the 50th birthday of the UK motorway – and an unprecedented growth since it’s humble eight-and-a-half-mile start.

Providing vital links – but often working beyond capacity – our motorways are under pressure.

The motorway network began with the M6 Preston by-pass, opened by Prime Minister Harold MacMillan on December 5, 1958.

In the ’60s and ’70s, motorways were viewed as a route to prosperity and during this period the network grew to 1,553 miles.

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It expanded a further 621 miles over the next 20 years, but has stalled at a total of 2,174 miles for the past decade. Hampshire’s M27 and M3 were constructed during the boom and were opened in a blaze of publicity.

The 24-mile M27, stretching from Cadnam to Portsmouth, was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983.

Plans for an M272 from junction 5 through Portswood to central Southampton never came to fruition and the A335 Thomas Lewis Way was built instead.

The M27 also has no junction 6, as plans for a motorway spur connecting the M27 to Townhill Park never came to light.

And construction for the 59- mile M3 began at the Surrey end in 1971.

Junctions 8 to 10 opened in 1985 and junctions 10 to 12, from Winchester to Chandler’s Ford, opened in 1995 – preceded by large scale protests from green campaigners as this stretch cut through Twyford Cross.

Carrying millions of cars every day, Britain’s motorway traffic has increased by 22.5 per cent in the past decade.

But motorway capacity has only increased by five per cent in the same time, despite the fact that the UK has twice the European average number of cars per motorway mile.

The Road Users’ Alliance claims that, while capacity has been neglected since 1976, motorway traffic has more than doubled and freight has soared, adding to the problem.

A massive project to add a fourth lane to the M27 both east and west in a bid to ease the problem is under way and due for completion in March.

Tim Green, the alliance's director, said: “The M27 and M3 have had a very positive impact on Southampton, especially for businesses. The docks and manufacturers depend critically on the quality of the roads, particularly the motorways.”