Is it possible to walk from Stansted airport to the Holiday Inn Express at Stansted airport

I have an early departure out of London Stansted airport (STN) coming up and was thinking to spend the previous night at an airport hotel. Sleeping in airports lists, among others, the

Holiday Inn Express London Stansted Airport - (5 min from the airport) Shuttle bus operates every 30 minutes from 4:00AM to 12:45AM (£3.00 per person, 17 and under free).

which, parts due to pricing, parts due to my brand loyalty, is my favorite right now.

• When arriving to the hotel from central London, is there any public transport stop that is still regularly being served late at night (past dinner time, but say before midnight), from which it is possible to walk to the hotel without walking on the street, risking to be run over, excluding the London Stansted train stop that I am already aware of?

• Is it possible to walk from said London Stansted train stop (the one in the airport) to the hotel (and back) without having to walk the curb of the road? Google maps shows it as being no more than a mile which would be fine with me if it is not raining, but I would prefer to not risk being run over and it will be dark when I have to do the journey. I did ask Google for directions and it returned me an absurd 35 mile hike, lasting a mere 10 hours along some highway. I also checked street view and was not able to find any pedestrian walkways.

• Would a cab from the airport be willing to take me to the hotel in case? I am doubting because the distance is very short and the driver might prefer giving me someone else a ride to the center. Money-wise it seems to be roughly equal, for two persons the shuttle is £6 and Google tells me a taxi for such a short distance should cost £9 roughly, and I might prefer not to wait 25mins for the shuttle bus.