Motorways in Britain are 50 years old today with the first eight-mile stretch opened on December 5, 1958.

The innovative first route was the Preston bypass in Lancashire, which is now part of the M6.

On duty 50 years ago was the AA’s first motorway patrolman Robert Gornall, who attended the route’s opening ceremony.

He recalled that in the early motorway days there was no speed limit nor any hard shoulder.

Mr Gornall went on: “When we reached a broken-down car we simply pushed it, bumper to bumper, out of the way to a place of safety where we could fix it - our vehicles were fitted with special rubber bumpers so as not to cause any damage.

”And breakdowns came thick and fast because cars just couldn’t cope with the higher speed - engines just simply blew.”

AA president Edmund King said: “1958 really was the start of the motorway age of motoring. Britain’s ever-growing band of motorists increasingly found they were able to stretch the boundaries of work and leisure when unthinkable journeys of the past gradually became the norm.

”Perhaps we should now be asking ourselves about the next 50 years - are we going to continue to invest in our motorways to build on their success, or do we want traffic to return to those places that the motorways by-passed? Will motorways become hi-tech with electronic control of cars to maintain their distance or USA-style multi-lane freeways?

”UK motorways are a great success story. Motorways are five times safer than single lane roads but the accident rate increases when motorways are congested. Motorways have transformed the way we travel.”

The AA said that 50 years on, the current policy was to squeeze more use out of motorways. Half of AA members support the controlled use of the hard-shoulder as a running lane with just 29% opposed. However the AA warned that 58% are opposed to the Government’s idea of charging for solo drivers on these lanes.

Today, Transport Minister Lord Adonis will officially open the £174 million M6 Carlisle to Guards Mill extension in Cumbria - closing “the Cumberland Gap” and so enabling motorists in southern England to use motorways to travel all the way to Glasgow.

This new “missing link” 5.8-mile, three-lane stretch of motorway replaces the A74 dual-carriageway road. Work on it started in July 2006 and construction has included building a new bridge, taking the motorway over the River Esk.