A lot of rubber has met the road on North Frontage Road in the recent past — with results ranging from prideful to tragic.

The stretch is essentially “Dealership Row” in the industrial mosaic of Vicksburg, to contrast with Catfish Row of generations past. GM, Ford, Nissan, Chrysler and Honda dealerships dot a half-mile stretch between Post Plaza and Old Highway 27. Together with various food and grocery outlets betwixt and between them, they’ve fed and kept locals mobile since Interstate 20 was completed in the early 1970s.

This month, the road has been in the news for a heady plus and another sad minus. Jackson-based Cannon Motor Company bought out the owners of the city’s lone Honda outlet and plans to move that operation and the Toyota dealership it purchased in 2013 onto North Frontage Road. The move should fill up the last hole left in the landscape on the old Battlefield Mall property.

Last Thursday, we were reminded the interstate highway system through Vicksburg as constructed by state engineers long ago — including North Frontage — can be quite dangerous. A woman was killed and three men were injured in four car wrecks on I-20, with one of them reaching a deadly endpoint just a few hundred feet from where Cannon plans to sell vehicles. A motorist in an apparent hurry merged into interstate traffic from Halls Ferry Road closely in front of an 18-wheeler. It was too close, apparently, as the big rig driver hit the shoulder and lost control, police said. The truck crossed the median and struck, crushed and dragged a woman’s small sedan into a ditch. She left behind a husband and two children.

Reflectors and darker lane striping on the frontage road might not have prevented the tragedy, but it’s worth a mention. The surface of the road becomes a “trust me” situation in front of car dealerships between the wreck site and Indiana Avenue. What were once distinguishable lane stripes are faded to the point of invisibility — in a few fairly sharp curves, no less. In rainstorms about as strong as Tuesday’s rain or stronger, low spots can become a puddle deep enough to cause at least a minor accident. That’s unacceptable, given the volume of business motoring in and out of retail outlets up and down both frontage roads.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation has said Vicksburg is in line for a multimillion-dollar makeover along Interstate 20 in Vicksburg. During the most recent round of public presentations, in 2012, engineers said it required less land acquisition to turn traffic one way on both frontage roads to make room for a four-lane I-20 between the river bridge and the Clay Street interchange. It’s a given it’ll cost more than the $250 million figure the agency threw out there two years ago. That’s a reality, given the state has one of the lowest gasoline taxes in the nation that hasn’t been indexed for inflation, which has affected highway funding.

What doesn’t have to be a reality is lack of basic maintenance on either frontage road. Striping on South Frontage Road could use a giant marks-a-lot, too, so to speak. These days, striping is made of thermoplastic material that’s essentially a long piece of tape that’s affixed to driving surfaces.

MDOT, we might not have $250 million. But does anyone there have a magic marker?