It is used because they are durable and lightweight and last....you can also store a hell of a lot of them in a 53' (or equivalent EU shipping container) semi-truck.

If barriers could be made that perform as well out of something else...they would.



Fact is that fans are very hard on things like barriers. From leaning on them, to beating on them, to standing on them, to puking on them. Anything you make a barrier from that wouldn't break bone from running into it dead-on at 30MPH? Well...that barrier would have been broken and in pieces before the peloton got there. It sucks for Valverde, being probably the end of his carrier (he's about retirement age anyway)...but well, it is how it is, sometimes life sucks.