New York's subway systems are switching to gender inclusive announcements

Congrats to the New York subway system for making an active attempt to be less awful.

While commuters still have to deal with their fair share of overcrowding and delays, on Friday, New York's PIX11 announced that the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is taking an important step in promoting equality: switching to gender inclusive announcements.

The MTA's trains and busses will reportedly be doing away with automated announcements that include gender-specific terms like "ladies and gentlemen." Instead, they'll be replaced with more inclusive language like "passengers," “riders,” and "everyone."

According to PIX11, all transit staffers were notified of the change last week, as it's part of the ambitious NYC Subway Action Plan working to improve and modernize the 113-year-old transportation system.

The plan details that the MTA wants to improve communication with customers — efforts that will consist of offering "more timely" information regarding delays and construction, along with an increase of in-person announcements, as opposed to pre-recorded ones.

"We're fundamentally changing the way we talk with riders to give them better and clearer information," MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein told PIX11.