women have all the luck...
"Perhaps the ultimate road movie outcast, Mona does not cruise the highways on a sleek motorbike, sporting a sexy leather jacket, wreaking subversive havoc" (Driving Visions, p. 267).
Gender seems to have a great deal to do with the differences between Vagabond as a road movie and American road movies, such as Easy Rider. While the road is a dangerous place for anyone who travels (note the various sketchy situations Billy and Wyatt got themselves into in Easy Rider), it is even more dangerous for a woman like Mona in Vagabond. Mona is a realistic view of the traveller -- she is unwashed, disheveled, with few possessions, no money, no ambition, no goal (except to keep moving), and no means of getting to where ever she is going, and extraordinarily apathetic. All of this, in combination with her gender, put her at greater risk than any of the previous protagonists we have so far encountered. She is literally at the mercy of any person who crosses her path, with the majority of those who she encounters exploiting (or attempting to exploit) her sexuality in exchange for their assistance. Many times, Mona would give herself to someone in exchange for a safe place to camp, while other times, the men she encountered would just take what they wanted (like the farmer who raped her). Because of her lack of funds, Mona lacks the ability to control her own destiny, with the exception of making the decision to pick up and leave in order to encounter the next person who may or may not attempt to exploit her. Now, contrasting this with the various adventures of Billy and Wyatt in Easy Rider and the tame-by-comparison reception they received (the farm, the commune, Mardi Gras), the depiction of Mona as a traveller is in far less a romantic light.