How is "The Road Not Taken" interpreted in today's society?

People typically interpret the fork in the road in this poem to be symbolic of the choices we make. We may have a few options at each of these moments of decision, but ultimately we cannot really know where each choice would take us, just as the speaker cannot see where the roads lead.

The speaker examines both choices, noting that the second is "just as fair" as the first, and he admits that "the...

People typically interpret the fork in the road in this poem to be symbolic of the choices we make. We may have a few options at each of these moments of decision, but ultimately we cannot really know where each choice would take us, just as the speaker cannot see where the roads lead.

The speaker examines both choices, noting that the second is "just as fair" as the first, and he admits that "the passing there / Had worn them really about the same." In other words, the two roads are worn pretty equally, implying that approximately the same number of people have taken them: neither one, then, is actually "less traveled." In fact, the speaker also says that "both [roads] that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black" (my emphasis). He chooses the second option, knowing that he'll probably never come back to try the first road.

Finally, he claims that he will tell this story in the future, perhaps to his grandchildren, since it will be "ages and ages" from now. He will say that there were

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Thus, he is planning to lie. He will tell people that one of the roads was clearly "less traveled" than the other and that he took that road. We might assume it is because he wants to seem brave, as though he made a difficult and relatively unique choice. However, if you recall, there IS no road less traveled—he described them as equal in many ways—and so we are left to consider the possibility that there are, perhaps, no real unique choices to be made.

Many people interpret this poem to mean that it is possible and good to take the road less traveled. However, it is difficult to find evidence for this interpretation since the speaker so clearly describes the roads as equals. Perhaps this interpretation says more about us, actually confirming the conclusions we might draw from the narrator's desire to lie and make himself sound unique.