http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0507london-traffic0507.html

London lists U.S. No. 1 for not paying traffic fee

Alan Cowell New York Times May. 7, 2006 12:00 AM

LONDON - As contests go, it may be one the United States would be happy to lose.

But right now, the United States leads the list of countries whose diplomats here have repeatedly failed to pay the $14 congestion charge levied on motorists entering an area of central London that includes Grosvenor Square, where the American Embassy is, according to figures released late last week. The charge is an effort to reduce weekday traffic and encourage the use of public transportation.

In an outcry that recalled New York City's 2002 debate over parking fines unpaid by diplomats, London Mayor Ken Livingstone said, "It really is remarkable that the richest country in the world topped the congestion charge non-payers' league over the last six months."

American diplomats owe around $490,000 in unpaid charges from the past six months, roughly 34,000 individual infringements, according to the list.

The U.S. Embassy has said the charge is a tax and that the Vienna Convention regulating diplomatic behavior in foreign countries exempts diplomats from paying such taxes.

Transport for London, the agency that runs the traffic system and compiled the list, says the fee is not a tax but a charge to reduce congestion on certain streets.

The charge was introduced in 2003 to ease gridlock in an 8-square-mile area of central London. The BBC and the Evening Standard requested the figures on unpaid fees from Transport for London under the Freedom of Information Act.

Overhead cameras record the license plate numbers of cars entering the city's center between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. weekdays. The fine for not paying the $14 fee starts at $180 per infringement.