Vancouver believes in pedestrians. Then the lagoon itself. It bursts with activity. Bars and restaurants spill their tables onto terraces and docks. Sailboats and powerboats crisscross the water.
Bridges fly past, high above.
Or you can grab an Aqua Taxi to any of four landings on the downtown side of the lagoon. Shops, businesses, theaters line the water, mingling comfortably with surviving industrial uses. This is city life at its very best, providing the greatest variety of human experience in the least amount of area, offering the maximum of interaction and choice, with no need to get in a car. Having fallen in love with Vancouver, I hunted up the city's planning director, Larry Beasley, to learn what makes the town so great. They think a great place to live is one that mixes different uses closely together, so you can walk or maybe bike from your home to your place of work, perhaps stopping to eat or shop along the way.