Stuck on I-5, NE Portland

I had a "cross cultural" experience on Friday, driving my sister...with a bum leg... from Lewis & Clark College to Vancouver. We left the college a bit after 5pm, heading north at a peaceful 25 mph pace on I-5. Lots of time to visit and sightsee at that speed. Luckily we hit the HOV lanes just before 6pm and cruised along at 40 mph to the Interstate Bridge and were soon across and out SR 14. Not too bad.
Now only a fool would do that every day; indeed commute distances have shrunk over the years in Portland as people have sought to solve the "congestion problem" by their own initiative...living closer to there they work. Don't forget...we choose to congest.
Most logistics folks can count, so while you see plenty of trucks in the peak hours the vast majority are making their way thru Portland at mid-day or evening hours. It even appears that I-5 is preferred to I-205 despite some peak hour congestion as it is a more direct route.
14 lanes across the Columbia, if managed at all, should be sufficient. Tolls are a way to do just that and pay for what we all know we need... good transit, safe bike/ped and proven HOV facilities. Why not give people of choice? Not everyone will take you up on one, but many will...enough to keep essential trips, like mine on Friday, within reason.
As we used to see in the Soviet Union, free bread gets you long lines. Put a price on a product or service and quality goes up and lines go away.