In 1977, the "Institut d'aménagement et d'urbanisme de la région d'Île-de-France" ("Institute for the Management and Urbanism of the Île-de-France Region"; IAURIF) was given a mission by the "direction régionale de l'Équipement" to study the creation of two structural ring roads in the suburbs, one of which was to connect the business district of La Défense in the west to the capital of Seine-Saint-Denis, Bobigny, in the east. The Institute proposed that they use a tramway, which has a greater capacity than the bus and has numerous other advantages such as less noise, no pollution, adaptability to future traffic situation and accessibility for the disabled due to its lower platform. The tramway seemed to be the perfect solution for suburb-to-suburb connections since the lower ridership could never justify creating a metro line but was too high for a simple bus line.