Welcome to beautiful Vancouver
The public transportation in Vancouver is one of the best systems that I have ever seen. Bus, train Schedules are very accurate and you lay on them.
Driving to Downtown is not a very good idea. First, daily parking cost for downtown is something about 20$! 300$/month.
Second, by using Sky train and bus you can save your time (sky train goes with 70km/h, but the avarage speed of you car can not be higher than 30-40km/h in rush hours). Also, if you want to stay in Louis Riel House, they only can provide you one parking slot!
I personally live in LRH. I like it. It's very close to classes, gym, swimming pool, ... The security is excellent. BUT, the building it not so beautiful. It is in a very good condition, but not look very new. Also you think about to pay for parking (160CAD/ semester)+(120CAD/semester for phone)+(80-120CAD/semester Internet).
Many of student in SFU live in
East Hastings St. Somewhere between Duthie st. and Sperling St.( I never suggest the west part, it not safe and also too far from the campus)
around Lougheed Town Centre
you can find more public transportation of Vancouver in
http://www.translink.bc.ca/
and google map. both of them accurate
If you need more information, we can have a chat in more detail