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This paper presents the pros and cons of the so-called “mesoscopic” approach used in dynamic traffic modeling. After a quick overview of methodologies applied in dynamic models, we discuss the critical issues that mostly determined the shape of past and current research: the time modeling scheme, the level of detail of the approach, the computer implementation strategy and the availability of field data. This paper stresses the importance of modeling departure time choice and information processing. Along this discussion, we describe the features of METROPOLIS, a tool-box designed for the simulation of large-scale transportation systems that proved to be tractable on large-scale, real cases. The system features both within-day and day-to-day dynamics. Lastly, this paper presents simulation results on the wide Parisian region (Ile-de-France).