What's the meaning of roadside?

'She was still in love with her husband; frequently she glanced at him with furtive wistfulness. She was able to enjoy the summer weather. She was not quite dead to the common phenomena of the roadside. But the last resistances of departing youthfulness and vivacity against the narcotic of a dull, unlovely domesticity were taking place. In a year or two she would be the typical matron of the Lower middle-class.'

A Man From the North, Arnold Bennett.

I can not understand what roadside means in this context. Roadside is defined as:

• the strip of land along a road
• the side of a road

but those don't seem to make sense in this context; the usage appears to be figurative, but figurative for what? Perhaps she is in the sunset of her youth, vigour?

Solution 1:

The linked question What does "to be dead to {something}" mean? indicates that (in this context) "dead to" means "oblivious to". So the sentence in question effectively reads:

She was not quite oblivious to the common phenomena of the roadside.

Others have indicated that the two people are currently riding on an omnibus.

In these circumstances, I would suggest that 'roadside' has its normal meaning. Hence the sentence means:

"She was not quite oblivious to ... the roadside" that they were driving past (and possibly which she has seen numerous times previously) and/or to what is happening around her, but she is becoming increasingly withdrawn into herself by the "dull, unlovely domesticity" in which they live.

In other words, she is becoming increasingly oblivious to her surroundings, as a result of her domestic situation.