[1] It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to Birmingham, The Potteries and Manchester.

The northern section runs south through Manchester and Cheadle, and bypasses Handforth, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge, before passing through Congleton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the southern suburbs of Stoke-on-Trent.

Because of the volume of traffic, bypasses were built along this route – at Newbury on the A34, and at Twyford Down near Winchester on the M3 – but these were controversial for environmental reasons.

[5] The idea that the cancelled Oxford–Cambridge Expressway (linking the current A34 near Oxford to the A14 near Cambridge) would have been designated as A34, did not have any official status.

The long planned and often postponed Alderley Edge bypass was completed in November 2010, ahead of schedule and within the £52 million budget.

[9] The official opening ceremony was conducted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon George Osborne MP,[10] on 19 November 2010.