Editorial policy

Sourcing hierarchy

Tier 1: U.S. Code and CFR, state statutes and agency rate schedules, FMCSA, NHTSA, NTSB, city fee schedules, BLS, FHWA, IIHS, and manufacturer manuals. Tier 2: TRAA, WreckMaster, SAE, FSRI/UL, trade press, US PIRG. Tier 3: estimate aggregators, always attributed as estimates.

Risk tiers

• R3 legal — requires a primary government source and a dated jurisdiction notice.
• R2 mechanical — requires a manufacturer or standards-body source.
• R1 general — costs, definitions and comparisons.

What we do not publish

If a fact cannot be traced to a primary document, it is not published. When a state page lacks enough verified items, it publishes saying explicitly what is missing rather than filling the gap. When we cannot answer a question from sources, we do not publish the page at all.

AI use

We use automated tooling to cluster questions and prepare structural drafts. Every R2 and R3 claim is reviewed by a person against the cited source before it publishes.

Corrections

Write to [email protected]. We correct with a visible, dated note.