I don't know if I understand it correctly but imho there should be some wandering NPC's. Eg 200 on the whole map. They would be sctipted so they leave town A and after some time that shows the travel time, the NPCs appear in town B. There he can just go to some shop and stand there for a while or go to bar and 'have some drinks' so yes, another standing for a while. And after some time he would just leave the town and 'go' to another one.
Also I love talking npcs in the background like in Gothic series when you were walking through the city you heard them chatting about everything and nothing. It was cool and gave great roleplay experience. Something like Lexx posted.