Dont really use the M1 much, being in cheshire, but do use the M6 to go to Coventry, prefer to sit in stationary traffic too than pay the £4.50 day rate for the toll road. I like motorways, but do prefer them at night when quieter and stopping at the services for a coffee or hot choco makes me appreciate them, despite the high prices.
From the article, my fav quote and sum up at the end:
"There's certainly a kind of tacky magic to these places. It can be hard to see during the day, with the more immediate concerns of traffic and work, but make a long solo late-night journey and things change. First, there is the sense of alienation - the solitary outsider coming in from the dark, probably not interacting with anyone else, only to go back out into the darkness a few minutes later. And the places themselves have an odd quality in the small hours: you come out of the darkness into an island of glare and shiny surfaces, a sort of artificial reality designed to make you feel human again by offering you the chance to buy countless humdrum things you don't really want. Just like real life. But don't try to apply too much psychology or sociology to how service areas work, because ultimately they're just a way of extracting money from a punter who's stopped for a pee.
Simon Harvey, Colchester, UK "
