SFist Jay decided to use his first Clipper card yesterday, given that it was August 1st and Muni is phasing out the paper FastPasses soon. Having procured a free card from one of the representatives at Civic Center one day last month, the only step that seemed to remain was going online and putting an August FastPass on there. Right?

But no! This is in fact not a quick and one-step process, and like so much that Muni touches it is already a little bit broken [Clarification: We recognize that Clipper is a regional thing and not just Muni's choice, but for many who read this site the impact will largely be felt as a replacement for FastPasses, and thus we associate it with Muni]. You see, after paying your $70 for a Muni+Bart FastPass, you still have to wait 24 to 72 (!) hours for your payment to register and for the card to start working. Also, there is a second cryptic step, according to the confirmation page on the website about your balance not being loaded until you've tagged and loaded it, or something. Please read along with us below and help us understand what this means.

Please note that when you add value online, it can take up to 3 days for the value to be available to be loaded onto your card, and you must tag your card to a card reader to load the value. Your card balance will not be updated until you have tagged your card and loaded the value.

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]

While others try to mansplain to you the problems with Muni, let us hypothesize what's really wrong with San Francisco's infamous public transit system: the every-changing color palate of the Fastpass. If we can get all Color Me Beautiful on you for a moment, don't you think Muni's problems stem from the Fastpass' revolving kaleidoscope of colors? Too garish, too much.

Now, let's take a look at this Muni Fastpass from 1981. So warm, so comforting. Very late '70s/early '80s afternoon disco pool party in Russian Hill.

And don't even get us started on the fonts. Chunky goodness.

[SFHaps, via Mission Mission]