Ordinary trips were transformed from dull traffic-jammed routes to mini-adventures.
The potentially sparkling start to the season was dulled, however, by sluggish traffic in the nation's shopping capital, New York, and fear that consumer interest could be sustained only with strong price reductions.
The village, so-called, of Haskells Crossing awakens around their private hill; the steady dull whir of traffic presses through the house walls of pine and plaster and the insulating woods beyond.
No, this isn't a beautiful or ingratiating building, but it's technologically smart, with an underground turntable for trucks that may sound eye-rollingly dull but makes traffic engineers like the city's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, swoon because it reduces the number of backing up and double-parked 16-wheelers on nearby streets like Dean.
The blare of traffic dulled slightly as we were enveloped by green.
The words "Los Angeles" and "center" consort oddly, especially since the city's ever more apocalyptic traffic further dulls the local citizens' never ardent yen to venture out of their usual ways.
As described here, it's actually less interesting and inviting than the desk-top – hence, perhaps, the duller, more obvious ideas ("traffic is flowing, birds at play") used in the effort to capture it.
Neighbouring Lucca, on the other hand, is graceful without being dull, with a largely traffic-free centre that's strewn with handsome buildings – you can hardly walk for five minutes without coming upon a small piazza and marble-fronted church facade.
In seven years, the grout between the tiles had gone from a light peach color to a blotchy, dull brown, particularly in high-traffic areas near the doors and the sink.
He even liked the pace, especially those moments when there was nothing to do but watch the endless traffic, soak in its dull roar.
The noises of pedestrians and traffic stopped feeling like a dull background buzz and became sharper, stronger signs of life.
