The road quality can impact your vehicle and decrease your chances of a smooth ride, but in some situations, it might also lead to a serious accident. Roads everywhere in California, whether rural or urban like those in San Diego, should be repaired often enough that there’s no major risk of an accident due to poor road quality alone. A new study, however, shows that California residents are unhappy with the way state and local areas are keeping up with quality and maintenance of pavement.

California drivers are so frustrated with road quality, in fact, that they are willing to pay to improve the situation. Autolist.com recently looked at S.B. 1, the $50 billion infrastructure bill in CA. Nearly 8,000 drivers were included in the study. Those in rural areas were most likely to support additional taxes to help fund road repairs, according to the study. Nearly 55 percent of rural residents were willing to pay in order to see some progress in their road quality overall. Nearly half of all rural residents reported low satisfaction with road quality. In addition to those numbers, nearly 60 percent said they’d want to see higher taxes invested in better public transportation options instead of road quality.

City dwellers, like those living in San Diego, were most likely to have high levels of dissatisfaction with road quality. While half of city residents recognize that road quality issues impact their regular driving behavior, less than half wanted to pay for progress in city locations.

Whether it’s hitting a pothole or an area where the road is full of cracks, road quality can turn from an inconvenience to a deadly concern in the event of an accident. In some situations, the city or government entity responsible for a defective road could even be held liable in an accident. While those cases are complex from a legal standpoint, they may be an injured victim’s only recourse for compensation.

Has road quality already caused you to get involved in a serious accident? If so, you may be entitled to compensation with the help of a lawyer.