M18 motorway (Great Britain) and 12 June 2015. The M18 was originally to be part of the M1, but it was decided to route the M1 towards Leeds instead of Doncaster, and the routing of what would have been the M1 east of Sheffield became the M18. Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. The location sequence is a continuation of the M1 location sequence. !scope=col|miles !scope=col|km !scope=col abbr="Southbound"|Southbound exits (B carriageway) !scope=col|Junction !scope=col abbr="Northbound"|Northbound exits (A carriageway) !scope=col|Coordinates M18 motorway (Great Britain) The M18 is a motorway in Yorkshire, England. It runs from the east of
M1 motorway M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the Preston By-pass, which later became part of the M6. The motorway is long and was constructed in four phases. Most of the motorway was opened between 1959 and 1968 but the southern end was extended in 1977 and the northern end was extended in 1999. It forms part of the unsigned European route E13.