benny, ya I ride to work in chicago. Im not sure if you understand the way the bike works.. The rear gear is locked. So you cant coast. If your feet are on the pedals and the bike is moving than your feet are moving. Its a direct connection. So conversely if your feet are slowing down, so is the rear wheel. With the foot harness' its pretty easy to stop in a reasonable distance by slowing your legs and at the same time pulling up and back on the harness'. There are more advanced techniques to stop these bikes, such as skidding and leaning the majority of your body over the front handle bars to lift the rear wheel and locking your legs (which is much easier when the rear wheel isnt in contact with the ground.) However, Im not quite comfortable doing either.

And yes, the bikes name is "The Death Machine." It was the name of hte bike when my friend had it and he insisted I keep the name. I like it though, seeing as its a bare bones machine and has no brakes... Yep, the names def fitting

edit: btw the handle bars are standard road bike bars but flipped upside down and sawed off so they dont hook around all the way.