By Shannon Sturgis Brad Williams has started Bumblebee Transportation to be a designated driver for those in central Arkansas.

LITTLE ROCK — So you're bombed at the bar, and it's time to leave.

Yes, it's happened.

Again.

Your options: A) be an idiot and drive home anyway; B) show a bit of maturity/responsibility/decency and call a cab; or C) call Brad Williams.

Williams is a 6-foot-tall red head who buzzes around town on a 50 cc collapsible minibike. And he's waiting for your call. He'll meet you at the bar and drive your car back to your house, with you and the minibike in it. Once you're safe and sound, he'll unload the bike and buzz off to his next client. The price: 30 clams. The name of the business: Bumblebee Transportation.

"It'll fit into a Mini Cooper, and I've gotten it into a Toyota Echo," Williams said, as he broke the bike down into separate pieces - handlebars and front wheel, the gas tank, the seat, and the engine and rear wheel. Each fits into a separate bag, meaning no oil or gas will spill on the ride home.

The business' name comes from the engine's sound, which isn't so much a growl as a humming buzz. Williams has added some yellow and black stripes to the bike's gas tank and said some feel he should adhere a pair of antennae to his helmet for added effect. (He's not ready for that yet.) The business has at least one thing going for it that no cabbie can offer: You don't have to go back and get your car in the morning.

And everyone knows the worst part of taking a cab home from the bars isn't the added cost of fare or the shame of misplacing your sobriety but the hungover return trip to get your car.

After all: Some places should not be seen in broad daylight. That smoky bar with the $1 well drinks and the 40-plus beers on tap and the cute waitress who laughed at all your jokes cause around midnight, you really were about the funniest guy on the whole stinking planet ... well ... that bar is one of them.

As for Williams, he said he's happy to be the designated driver. He never was much of a partyer. When he was in college at Hendrix, he was usually Mr. Sobriety. That way, his friends wouldn't have to be.

Williams has only been in business a few months and now averages one or two calls every weekend. He's a licensed attorney, too, but he doesn't want to talk about working as a lawyer. Bumblebee Transportation is his only job, open Friday and Saturday nights, from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. He tries to keep jobs limited to Little Rock, where he grew up, and maybe parts of North Little Rock, too.

"I've been to Park Hill, and that wasn't a problem, and I've been to Pleasant Valley in Little Rock," Williams said. He added: "You can't get on the interstate with this thing. It's just not safe."

The minibike runs about 35 miles per hour, tops. In theory, it gets 100 miles to the gallon. Williams said he'd rather not drive during the day, when there's more traffic.

Most of his customers so far are 30-something professionals. This is somewhat the result of increasingly stiffer penalties for getting popped while driving drunk, Williams said. Or as he put it, his customers are "people who don't want to put their license in jeopardy, not just their driver's license but also their professional license."

"You have something you can lose," Williams said. "When you're 20, you think you're bulletproof. We've all been there."

There are also the couples who know, in advance, that they're unlikely to be sober enough to make it home later that night. Say it's your husband's birthday, and you both want to have drinks. They make a reservation before the night's even begun, Williams said.

Customers need a valid driver's license and proof of insurance, which Williams said gives him necessary coverage for the ride home. No insurance, and Williams won't even get in the car.

And has he had any problems? Any belligerent drunks or unfortunate incidents? Not really, Williams said.

"They've all been pretty nice. No wild or crazy stories," Williams said. "Half the time, at the end of the ride, somebody gives me a hug."