Originally Posted by
CanadianMoocow
If you do have access to a rental car, you can visit University of BC where they got a few gardens and museums.
You don't actually need a car to get to UBC -- the 99 B-Line express bus will take you straight there (I've done it myself). There are transfers to the SkyTrain at Broadway-City Hall or Commercial-Broadway. There are lots of car-less UBC students so the bus line is pretty heavily utilized and frequent (Wikipedia claims it's the busiest line in Canada and the US, though who knows for sure).