Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I wonder if we're seeing a generation gap here. Not in chronological years but in years as an active cyclist/bicycle tourist
I would agree that there is something cultural -- even though I haven't counted the number of pro vs indifferent to trails in this thread, my impression is that the vast majority in this forum do not believe that an interstate network is a possibility, and that most are happy enough if roads have wide shoulders.
I am new to bike touring, so maybe this affects my perception. But what if we were talking about walking? Say you'd envision walking from Maine to Georgia. Would you rather walk the Appalachian Trail or the shoulder of the I-95? May sound silly (AT, obviously, at least for me) but if you google "walking across America" you find blogs of people pushing grocery carts along highways.
We met a couple, this past summer, who are probably actively involved in the promotion of cycling (she was about to fly to give a lecture about alternative transportation, her husband told us how he'd ride from home to his family's vacation destination, when he was a teenager). They'd fit your "older" tourer description, both wrt their experience and demographic profile. They asked us where we were coming from (Quebec city to Maine, en route to PEI, with our kids) after which they proceeded to tell our kids how lucky they were and so on. We went on talking about our previous trip on California's west coast, and they said how incredible it would be if there were a trail, instead of the current route on the shoulder of often very busy roads. They referred to The Netherlands and Scandinavia. And so on. We both agreed that trails are great. They were possibly more concerned with safety. We were thinking about the scenery and the annoying noise of cars and trucks overtaking you at speed. You get the idea. (our kids loved Acadia NP's carriage roads; highway 1, not so much).
So, yes, different cultures. But I would not bet the house that these differences are rooted in experience. I'd suggest that the kind of experience you've had will shape your expectations, in part. And that there is something fundamentally different between a road trip and a stroll, so to speak.