Cyclist Doctor's Quest For Hospital Bike Lockers Fulfilled

LAKE FOREST, IL — A decadelong effort by a Lake Forest doctor to see bicycle lockers installed at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital was fulfilled this winter, allowing hospital staff who ride to work to protect their bikes from the elements without having to find a place to stash them inside the building.

Dr. John Spehlmann, an anesthesiologist at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, grew up in Glenview and graduated from Glenbrook South High School and Northwestern University before moving to California and completing a residency at the University of California at Davis, where he said he saw bike lockers in action back in the 1990s.

When he moved to Lake Forest nearly two decades ago, Spehlmann found himself having to figure out where he could safely store his bike at the hospital after his daily commute. He and the other cyclists on staff each had their own method at the old hospital building.

"I had to go through the backdoor stairwell, I had to get someone to cut me a key to get in," Spehlmann recalled. "It was just a cumbersome process."

About a decade ago, Spehlmann said, he began sharing some quotes with hospital officials for what it would take to install some bike lockers. Nothing came of it until after the hospital moved to its new building in May 2018.

"It was a process, we moved into the new hospital, so I was like, 'OK they've got a lot on their plate right now, so I don't want to push it, but after a year, I kind of shoved it under the door and said, 'Hey, this is the proposal I got most recently,'" Spehlmann told Patch. "I didn't necessarily think it would ever happen."

Eventually, the space Spehlmann was using for bike storage in the new hospital was needed for the expansion of a pathologist lab, and hospital administrators authorized the addition of the lockers.

Spehlmann and his wife, Dana, an Evanston native, childbirth educator and registered nurse at Lake Forest Hospital, contributed about $4,000 of the approximately $10,000 cost of four pairs of lockers, he said.

The roughly 8-foot-long and 4-foot-wide boxes resemble a sarcophagus and each hold two bikes. Their value, Spehlmann said, is more about keeping valuable bikes safe from inclement weather than from thieves.

Though he lives near Cherokee Elementary School, just a few miles from the hospital, Spehlmann said he tends to turn it into a 10-mile morning ride, unless he wakes up late — even in the winter. In recent years, he said, snow plowing has improved dramatically on bike trails in the area.

"You can do a lot more now with the technological advances from a cycling standpoint, and if you have people cleaning roads and paths, you can do it year-round," Spehlmann said. "You have to be reasonably savvy about it, avoiding peak traffic times and certain routes, so it's definitely doable."

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Spehlmann would ride with a group that included a lot of attorneys, whom he described as "very risk-averse when it comes to gatherings."

In the past year, he has spent more time riding with fellow hospital staff, primarily operating room technicians and nurses. That group, he said, has a more congenial attitude to cycling compared to typical North Shore riders, who can be more competitive.

Going forward, Spehlmann hopes to see more groups of Northwestern Medicine-affiliated riders who can gather for charity-type rides and other events.

"Once the pent-up frustration of not having been able to ride with groups loosens up this summer," he said, "I think we'll have momentum to get that going."