Plans by the Highways Agency to replace the hard shoulder with a series of emergency lay-bys instead have been condemned by road safety campaigners as "a lesser design" that raises serious safety issues.
The M1 is due to be widened to four lanes in both directions from Leicester to Leeds. Drivers will have to put up with long stretches of roadworks, but the work holds the promise of faster-flowing traffic when it is finished in 2016.
But it could come at a price - our safety.
The stretch from junction 32 past Sheffield, up to junction 39 south of Dewsbury, is to be the first in Britain not to feature a hard shoulder. A stretch of the M62 from junctions 25 to 28 will also feature the same system.
Instead, the existing hard shoulder will be incorporated into the widened motorway with a series of 'emergency refuge areas' every 1,000 metres, each with CCTV and an emergency phone. Special electronic loops will be installed in the lay-bys to alert motorway control centres when the lay-by is occupied.
The cameras would then be able to send information to the control centre to take whatever action is needed. Each of the lanes would be narrowed by six inches to allow for the extra lane to be built.
That's the theory. But will it work in practice?
Paul Watters, head of road policy at the AA Motoring Trust, has serious concerns.
He told The Star: "The M1 issue is a real worry for us. We have always maintained that motorways are sacrosanct in terms of design. They should always incorporate a hard shoulder.
"It raises enormous problems about how to deal with accidents and breakdowns and how to get emergency services through. The proposed design says it will incorporate a hardened strip but exactly how emergency vehicles would get down there in a congested situation is open to debate.
"We feel it is very premature of the Highways Agency to publish plans for the future of motorways with no hard shoulder when they have not even got the results from their own pilot scheme on the M42.
"It is a long length of motorway that is proposed to be built like this. When you start touching motorway design you are treading in dangerous territory."
He described the proposals as a "lesser design" that was not fully tested and could compromise the excellent safety record British motorways enjoy.
The work to widen the motorway will take place from 2010 to 2016. The M1 and the M62 in South and West Yorkshire are two of the busiest motorways in the country, used by 140,000 vehicles a day. By 2021 that figure will have risen by around 40 per cent, even with the extra lanes.
The designs allow for a special access strip which would supposedly allow emergency vehicles to reach stranded motorists, but that is yet to be tested.
Mr Watters said motorway hard shoulders were "a failsafe design" which, for decades, had allowed easy access to the scene of an accident or emergency. They also make maintenance work easier to carry out.
"It is better to have a failsafe than one where you are running close to the limits of capacity and spare room," added Mr Watters. "The Highways Agency knows road user organisations believe the hard shoulder to be sacred. We have maintained it is better to have it than not to have it.
"Only four per cent of accidents are on motorways. We don't want to erode that."
Highways Agency bosses say research has shown that, of stops on hard shoulders, only between 10 and 20 per cent are emergencies. The rest are people stopping to look at maps or talking on their phones.
The hope is, by designating them for emergencies only, motorists will be dissuaded from using them more casually.
Concerns have been voiced too at the narrower lanes, which AA bosses fear could cause more collisions if drivers 'wander' from their lane.
Bosses at the Highways Agency say the narrowed lanes would still be within the accepted safety standards "in Italy and parts of Australia".
But last Friday the southbound carriageway of the M1 ground to a near-halt near junction 33 when two lanes were closed due to vehicle breakdowns. The blockage was cleared in little over an hour, but by then traffic had tailed back around 10 miles.
Highways Agency bosses say the incident just happened at the wrong time, but how emergency services will cope in a similar situation under the new design remains to be seen.
Alongside the safety fears some have concerns about the increased pollution from thousands more cars passing Tinsley and Catcliffe.
The 'No M1Widening' campaign held a demonstration earlier this year when the motorway plans were first unveiled at Don Valley Stadium.
They say pollution from traffic has been shown to increase respiratory problems such as asthma and chronic bronchitis and more people have heart attacks when air pollution levels are higher.
A Highways Agency spokesman said: "Safety of road users and motorway workers is our main concern. Safety issues take priority as we develop the design for this new layout.
"The M1 is one of the most important routes in the country and the plans aim to make full use of capacity within the motorway boundaries, reducing congestion and improving journey reliability.
"The Highways Agency's Regional Control Centre will keep a watch on the new sections by using CCTV cameras. On these sections, there will be frequent electronic signs over the road that can show changing speed limits to manage the flow of traffic.
"To ensure that the new proposed layout will be safe, a full safety case has been commissioned."