Back around 1976, I drove a mid-60s Pontiac Bonneville across Eugene, OR with no brakes at all. It was the car’s final journey, to the scrapyard. We chose Sunday morning for the trip so there wouldn’t be much traffic, and I drove the thing really slowly, watching far ahead. When I’d have to stop for a red light, I’d downshift the automatic into first, then pop it in reverse to get completely stopped, then into park to stay stopped. It all worked fine, mostly because there were no hills to deal with. I don’t think I’d try it today.
The first motorized rideable toy my cousin and I built (we were 14 and 13 years old) was a 26” bicycle, (with 20” wheels, to help accomodate the changes to the frame to hold the Briggs 3 hp motor). We never got around to rigging up a braking system. A year later I sold to a neighboring farmer’s 12 year old son.
At 15, I built a true mini-bike, with a rear drum brake. However, the cheap cable was always stretching, so most of the time it didn’t have brakes either
At 17, as a senior in high school I built a 3 wheeled ATV. I never got around to installing brakes on it either. About a year later I sold it to the same kid that bought my converted bicycle.
When I delivered it, his dad saw there were no brakes and said with a laugh, “You sure don’t worry about stopping much do you?”