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The M5 is a unique motorway. Unlike its other single-digit friends 1-6 it doesn't radiate from London and its purpose is not to connect major industrial areas. For half the year, large parts of it are over-capacity. The reason it exists (besides the everyday, humdrum job of connecting the places along its length) is to carry holiday traffic headed for the south west - Devon and Cornwall.
It picks up traffic from the north west first (M6), then east Midlands and north east (M42), then south east (M4) and carries it all south west. Then, at Exeter, it gives up. Traffic is split between the A30 to Cornwall, the A38 to south Devon and the A380 to east Devon.
Initially the section between present-day M42 and M50 was just two lanes each way. When the rest was built around it - with three lanes - this bit became a huge bottleneck and cost a fortune to fix when nobody could stand it any more.
Factfile
| Start | Birmingham (M6) |
| Finish | Exeter (A38) |
| Passes | West Bromwich, Bromsgrove, Worcester, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Weston-Super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton |
| Length | 166 miles |
| Terminates | M42, M49 |
| Spurs | M50 |
| Meets | M4 |
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With thanks to Steve Gill, Chris Bertram, Duncan Childs, Paul Martin, Jim Cobb and Dunc for information in this section.
