Hey everyone,
While doing my flashcards today I encountered the following sentence:
I wonder why it is: 自転車はより安い and not 自転車のほうが安い as generally より when used with 安い would be used to refer to the thing that is less cheap, not cheaper than the other option.
Does anyone have any ideas about why より is used here? Is there something I’m missing?
Thanks in advance for your attention,
Well, I suppose that for starters, 自転車 is the topic for the entirety of the second clause, so it starts off with 自転車は. It could also be a matter of the speaker wanting to use は for its contrastive feel here (compared to other modes of transportation), which would be difficult/clunky to use with the ～のほうが pattern.
Besides that though, you can use より in front of adjectives to mean “more [adjective].” I actually use it often to say that I “want to get better” at something (usually in reference to my own Japanese ability 
): よりよくなりたい！
Ah, thanks! That definitely clears things up! 
I mistook what kind of より it was 
. Now it makes much more sense. And yeah using は with のほうが would be clunky (and I think incorrect) if one wants to clearly specify with ‘は’ that bicycles are cheapest and that other modes of transportation are less so.