Questions before you place a book box

What the planner can tell you, where its data comes from, and what still needs a site visit.

Results are planning estimates, not guarantees. They come from public data and straight-line distances, and they do not confirm that a site is safe, accessible, or available. Most U.S. counties load normally, but some cannot be planned when a public data source is missing, incomplete, or temporarily down. Why some counties don't work

Counties and data

Why won't some counties work?

Most U.S. counties load normally. A few show Data unavailable and a Retry county data button instead of placements. That means a public data source the planner depends on was down, slow, or missing information. The planner stops instead of guessing, because a guess could steer boxes away from where children live.

Every county needs three things:

Neighborhood locations (Census tracts) from Census TIGERweb
Youth counts for every tract from the Census American Community Survey, through Census Reporter
Places that could host a box from OpenStreetMap

The message under Data unavailable tells you which one failed:

OSM candidate sites unavailable; retry in a minute: The OpenStreetMap search was busy or timed out on all three public servers the planner tries. Large, rural counties take longest because the search covers more ground. This is usually temporary.
ACS youth demand is unavailable: The Census youth counts did not load. The planner will not treat every neighborhood as equal instead, since that would ignore where children actually live. This is usually temporary.
ACS demand is incomplete for this county: At least one tract has no youth count. This can happen when the tract list and the youth counts come from different Census updates. Rather than count those neighborhoods as empty, the planner stops. Retrying may not fix this one.
Tract geometry unavailable: The Census tract service did not respond, or it returned only part of the county.
County list unavailable: The list of counties for the chosen state did not load. Pick the state again or reload the page.

A county can also load but have too few places to choose from. Some rural counties have few parks or community centers mapped in OpenStreetMap. If no usable sites are found inside the county, the log shows 0 candidate sites and no scenarios are calculated.

What you can do:

Wait a minute, then select Retry county data.
If it still fails, try again later in the day.
If places are missing, anyone can add parks and community centers to OpenStreetMap. Later searches will include them.
Still stuck? Report the county and the message you saw.

Fairfax County, Virginia always loads, because it uses a saved snapshot instead of live sources.

Where does the youth data come from?

Outside Fairfax, the planner uses Census American Community Survey 5-year estimates of residents ages 0 to 17 for each tract. Each tract's youth are placed at the tract's center point.

The Fairfax County starter uses a saved snapshot of 39 modeled tract groups. The data label in the planner shows which mode and survey years you are looking at.

What kinds of places can be recommended?

Parks, recreation grounds, sports and recreation centers, community centers, town halls, public buildings, social facilities, train stations, and bus stations that are mapped in OpenStreetMap and fall inside the county boundary. If fewer than 18 are found, schools are added. The planner compares up to 320 sites.

Libraries are left out on purpose, because a book box next to a library adds little. Places tagged as private are skipped.

Reading the results

Is this a walking-route planner?

No. Distances are straight-line distance multiplied by 1.35 to allow for streets. A short estimate can still cross a highway, river, or fenced property.

The directions link on each site opens a separate walking-route service. Check crossings, entrances, and accessibility in person.

Why does "youth within 1 mile" sometimes stay the same when I add a box?

Each tract's youth are counted at one center point, so a tract is either entirely within a mile of a box or not at all. The planner also shortens the average distance for everyone rather than maximizing the count within a mile.

An extra box can shorten many trips without bringing a new tract center inside a mile. In the Fairfax example, going from six boxes to seven cuts the average from 5.9 km to 5.5 km, but youth within a mile stays at 15,020.

How are equity and budgets handled?

When child-poverty data is available, the optional equity setting gives higher-poverty tracts more weight when choosing sites. Reported youth counts and distances still use the real population numbers. The Fairfax snapshot has no poverty data, so the setting does not change results there.

Budget is the number of boxes times your estimated cost per box, which starts at $500. Include materials, installation, and restocking in that estimate.

Before you install

Does a selected site mean we can install a box there?

No. A selection is a planning recommendation. The planner has not checked owner permission, accessible paths, visibility, or who will look after the box. Confirm each one before installing.

Flood flags exist only in the Fairfax snapshot. For other counties, check flood risk yourself.

Does the planner know about libraries and existing book boxes?

Not yet. Libraries are excluded as sites, but the planner does not count the books they, or existing book-sharing boxes, already provide nearby. Check what is close by before you choose.

Can I share a plan or work without an account?

Yes. No account is needed. You can copy a settings link, export a JSON report, or download GeoJSON for mapping software.

A settings link reloads the latest data and recalculates, so results can change over time. The JSON report keeps the exact inputs, but the planner cannot open a report again yet. Share it as a record.

Still have a question?

Try your county, or report a problem if something looks wrong.

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