Change is afoot in your commute, ladies and gentlemen. As of late June, you'll no longer be able to buy Muni Fast Passes online, and as of October those fun, colorful, ever-changing paper passes will disappear forever. Muni is forcing everyone to move over to the Translink system, WHICH, as of next week, will no longer be called Translink. It will heretofore henceforth be called Clipper, and all that Translink branding will need to be swapped out. (See that link for times when you can receive a free ClipperCard... otherwise they're $5.)

You have until October therefore to deal with your employee commuter check program (should you be so lucky) and get them to start filling your ClipperCard. Questions? See the FAQs.

All of this depresses us, and not just from a graphic design standpoint. No longer will we be able to mark time by the sometimes dated color combinations chosen by some mysterious Muni graphics department. And no longer will we have the charming distinction of being a city that still uses paper passes for their public transport system. Also, how can we trust that Muni, in its infinite wisdom, will make it easy for us to fill these cards? Change is not something that they do well. [SFMTA via Muni Diaries]