MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Nobody enjoys driving on messy winter roads.

The roads in West Michigan are bad enough without the snow in some places, and chances are that with all the cuts that M-DOT is proposing, it might be tough to make them better.

The freedom of an open road is slowly being replaced by the frustration of a bumpy one, sky-rocketing gas prices changed driver behavior, and even with prices dropping drivers are using less gas and the state is losing billions of dollars in gas tax because of it.

"We have to look at what projects are going to be cut if funding continues at it's current level," said Dawn Garner a spokesperson for M-DOT.

Garner says the Michigan Department of Transportation may have to cut as many as 246 road projects, including 185 bridges that need to be repaired. Such cuts could cost nearly 8,000 people their jobs by 2011, and it's just a matter of time before those cuts affect everyone.

"If bridges are having lanes shut down on them because the repairs can't be made that are needed for safety reasons, we'll shut down a lane or a bridge," Garner said, "obviously that's going to start impacting people."

It will also affect public transportation, Kalamazoo Metro Transit has been losing ground with state funding for years.

"If that keeps up we're going to be in a position where we have to look at potential cuts in service, fare increases and so forth," said Bill Schomisch, director of Kalamazoo Metro Transit.

M-DOT says the state legislature has a transportation rescue plan before it. The plan would repeal the current per-gallon gas tax and replace it with an 18 percent tax on gas wholesalers. M-DOT says the plan could generate an extra $1.5 billion to be used as a life support for Michigan's transportation infrastructure.

If that rescue plan goes through, it will cost average drivers $12 a month in various fees, but it will save those average drivers around $1,000 a year through increased safety and reduced vehicle maintenance. That plan would also help sustain 46,000 jobs in transportation.