At least it has a rear brake to slow down a bit, how much that "bit" would be on a given downhill who knows.
The modern interpretation cats designed in a supplemental backbone step and suggest a technique I've never seen in the historical literature: on downhills, step back off the saddle onto the auxiliary step (moving the machine+rider's CG well back and down) and, if the situation becomes truly dire, augment the rear brake with rubbing your shoe sole on the solid rear tire.
Would still be a real hoot to own.
