San Francisco Muni drivers went to their bosses seeking protection from assaults. What they got in return are plans for a three-year, $3 million program to train workers in “incident de-escalation” and “implicit bias” when dealing with agitated passengers.

“How is teaching me to de-escalate a situation going to help when I’m dealing with a man who just threw vomit all over me?” asked Muni driver Michelle Moore, describing a recent incident at the temporary Transbay Terminal.

“There are some crazy freaking people on the buses,” Moore said.

Fellow driver Barry Chamberlain, who has been off work since May after he was choked and thrown to the ground by a man he had asked to leave his bus at the end of the line, agreed with Moore.

“What are we supposed to do? If we do anything to defend ourselves, then we are the aggressor,” Chamberlain said.

Transport Workers Union Local 250-A President Roger Marenco said Muni’s answers fall way short.

“So if someone spits on you, you’re supposed to take a breath and say, “Have a nice day”?

Marenco said the drivers have been asking for safety improvements for years.

In 2018, there were 522 verbal and physical assaults involving drivers, down from 575 in 2017 — but still more than one a day.

“What we have wanted is more security and faster response time,” Marenco said. “When a driver is attacked, they should be treated as a victim, not as a criminal.”

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency spokesman Paul Rose said the sensitivity training is just “one tool in our toolbox to reduce assaults on our very important frontline staff,” and that parking control officers had asked for the training.

The training will be developed and taught by Moran Consulting and DTUI.com. All Muni workers will get implicit-bias training, and frontline workers such as drivers and parking officers will get de-escalation training as well.

“Not only did we listen to their concerns, we responded,” Rose said.

Rose said that in recent years Muni has added silent alarms, protective barriers and cameras to shield drivers and help catch and prosecute assailants.

But union chief Marenco contends the cameras were installed to keep an eye on drivers who may be eating or talking on their cell phones while driving — not to deter or catch assailants.

“When is the last time you saw a picture of an assailant’s face?” Marenco said.

Muni also eliminated bus transfers, because many assaults begin with fare disputes.

Drivers, however, said what’s needed are better protective barriers, more police or sheriff’s deputies on board, and better emergency response from central dispatch when there is an assault.

Currently, the San Francisco Police Department has about 30 officers assigned to Muni’s light rail and bus lines.

“I haven’t seen them,” Marenco said. “What we want is better protections and more prosecutions.”

Said Muni spokesman Rose, “We do as well.”

For driver Moore, however, it’s all coming a bit too late.

“After 19 years, I’ve had it,” Moore said.

Measure for measure: Hold onto your wallets. The folks who brought you the recent $1 toll hike on Bay Area bridges are already testing the waters for a new “mega” transportation measure, somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 billion to $100 billion.

And it could go before voters as early as next year.

“The idea is put together something that would have a really transformative effect,” Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman said.

Projects being considered for funding range from a second BART crossing, improving and expanding rail service into the Central Valley, even work on local traffic lights to help ease gridlock.

“The specific projects are far from being decided,” Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino said. “This is not going to be the product of some backroom deal, that is not the way we do business.”

Polling and focus groups, however, are already under way to test voter appetite for the measure — and how to pay for a campaign.

The Bay Area Council and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which together represent some of the Bay Area’s biggest employers and organizations, were key players in selling voters on last year’s Regional Measure 3 to raise tolls a $1 this year, with two more $1 bump-ups to follow.

Each dollar hike brings in $125 million a year for transit projects.

The new tax measure, however, may need a two-thirds majority — never an easy lift.

But if anyone can sell it, it’s these guys.

There there: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf took in quite a haul at her inaugural gala the other night.

Attending the bash at the Fox Theater were rapper Too Short and singer Michael Franti, plus local elected officials and business people, along with reps from her three biggest donors: Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and the San Francisco Foundation.

“One look at the crowd and you could see, that Oakland has arrived,” political consultant John Whitehurst said.

The take: $3.25 million for the Oakland Promise scholarship fund and Keep Oakland Housed.

Any way you count it, that’s a lot of there there.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phillip Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier