About

Why this site exists

The United States has one federal government and fifty state governments, and each state writes its own rules on a long list of everyday subjects: which animals you can keep, what equipment a car can carry, how alcohol is sold, when the clocks change. Cross a state line and the answer can flip. It is surprisingly hard to find a clear, current, side-by-side answer for all fifty states, and the summaries that do exist often skip the source.

QuirkMaps tries to fix that. Each topic asks one question, answers it for every state, and shows the result on a single map, so you can see the whole country at once and then drill into the state you care about.

What makes an answer trustworthy

Official sources decide. Every answer comes from a state statute, a state regulation, or a state agency's own page. News articles and blogs can point us to a rule, but they never decide an answer.
You can check it. Every state's answer links to its source, and state pages quote the exact words of the rule.
We show our confidence. Each answer is rated high, medium, or low confidence. When the law is silent or ambiguous, we say "Unclear" rather than guess.
Every answer is dated. Each record shows when its source was last checked, and topics are rechecked twice a year.

How the research is done

Research is AI-assisted. An AI model does the first pass under strict rules, a second independent pass reopens every source to check the first, and a person reviews the results before a topic is published. The methodology page explains each step, including what our answer labels and confidence ratings mean.

What QuirkMaps is not

QuirkMaps is general information, not legal advice. We describe what the law or official practice is; we don't tell anyone what to do. City and county rules can differ from state law, and laws change, so the linked official source and the state agency always have the final word.

Get in touch

Spotted a mistake, or have an idea for a topic? Contact us or see our corrections policy.