The Ballston Holiday Inn stands at the confluence of the Custis Trail, Bluemont Junction Trail, and the Fairfax Drive bike lanes.  It also prevents the connection of the existing pieces of North Wakefield Street.  The pending redevelopment of this site offers a unique opportunity to improve the connection between these critical sustainable mobility corridors as well as to complete a missing link needed for the Wakefield / Thomas St corridor to work as an alternative bike corridor to Glebe Road.

As currently proposed, the development would expand the Fairfax Drive sidewalk out to trail width (10'), close the existing curb cut on the west side of the site which is currently a dangerous blind turn for cars across trail traffic, and build a new piece of trail connecting Fairfax Drive to Wakefield Street south of the site.  

These are a good start, but the design details need a lot of work to live up to their potential.  The curb ramps for the crosswalks across Fairfax Drive are too narrow for heavy trail traffic between the two trails, the project should narrow the overly wide lanes on Fairfax Drive to signal to interstate drivers they are entering an urban area, the new trail lacks shade trees and dumps users onto an access road part way through the site, on a 90-degree curve, directly adjacent to the loading dock.