ATLANTA — The streetcar was stopped in downtown traffic, and before long Keisha Schwarzel figured that was enough of a first experience with the year-old addition to Atlanta’s transit system.

“I’d rather walk,” Ms. Schwarzel, 35, said on a rain-drenched Wednesday morning.

And that was when the ride was free.

On Friday, looking beyond the setbacks that became grist for the mass-transit skeptics who populate the suburbs, Atlanta’s 2.7-mile, $98 million streetcar system began charging passengers for the first time. In this city of congestion and deepening ambitions for public transportation, the debut of fares — $1 per ride or $3 for a one-day pass — was expected to renew battle lines in the debate over how the metro area’s 5.6 million people should move.

“I think 2016 will be very revealing, and it will give us a very good indication of how the streetcar will be in the future,” said Felicia A. Moore, who was chairwoman of the City Council’s Transportation Committee for 2015. “At this point, the critics, I would say, are sort of emboldened by the performance that we’ve had so far.”