In French provincial cities, tramways played a key in urban public transport from the late nineteenth century until the 1930s. During these urbanisation processes, neighbourhood associations known as Comités d’Intérêt de Quartier (CIQ, Neighbourhood Interest Committees) were formed in Marseille and Lyon. One of the main demands of these neighbourhood associations was the creation of suburban tramway lines. Suburban CIQs even successfully organised into federations, which were supposed to have greater influence over the municipal authorities of the time. However, as the CIQs essentially promoted the interests of their own districts, neighbourhood associations represented an expression of political practices at a neighbourhood level, incorporating individual interests.