Rather than

I'd like to go home early rather than risk(ing) the roads later.

I prefer making my kids' toys myself rather than buying them.

It was my wife, rather than I, who decided to leave.

It is never better to let kids have their way whenever they wish rather than standing up for one's parental authority.

Cheap mid-week return tickets were reintroduced by British Railways on May 7, to encourage holiday travel during the week rather than at weekends.

According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

I'd prefer a dog rather than a cat.