Universal Quieted Its New Coaster. Toluca Lake Hears the Riders.

When Universal Studios Hollywood started test runs of Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift with empty cars, the neighbors below barely noticed. Testing with riders began on June 29, 2026, according to the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council. Residents told the Los Angeles Times the ride sounded quiet without passengers. Once people were on it, the screams got loud and kept coming, and one account said they could be heard through closed double-pane windows.

The rest of this story follows from that early detail. Universal designed its noise controls around the steel, the wheels and the track. What carries down the hill into Toluca Lake is human voices. Every fix offered since then has been an attempt to deal with a sound the original design wasn't built to stop. That explains why each one so far comes with a condition attached.

A ride built to be quiet

Universal didn't overlook noise. Before construction, it put speakers on theme park buildings to see how sound traveled down the hill, and it measured levels at sites around the park and in Toluca Lake. The company's original noise plan included a track filled with pea gravel, more than 900 feet of sound-absorbing walls, two half-pipe shields, ride vehicles that can turn screams away from the community, and ongoing monitoring that was stepped up during testing.

Universal takes those measures seriously, and so does its spokesperson's position. The company says the attraction "fully complies with the sound standards established for Universal's property, which are stricter than local regulations."

Location makes the job harder. The coaster sits on a steep hillside between Universal's upper and lower lots, and the track reaches toward Lankershim Boulevard. The park is above Toluca Lake, with the Los Angeles River channel and Lakeside Golf Club between them. Deadline describes the ride as reaching up to 72 mph with forces up to 3.6 Gs along 4,100 feet of track. A ride like that is designed to make people scream.

What the complaints describe

Neighbors' complaints are mostly about the screaming. Deadline reported that they've had "more to do with the bloodcurdling screams coming from the riders rather than the actual sound of the coaster." The OC Register, citing earlier LA Times reporting, quoted residents who said the screams during technical rehearsals sounded "like someone is getting murdered."

The GTLNC resolution includes one resident's account of hearing screams inside a closed-window home at about 10 a.m. and again at about 9 p.m. It estimates a scream every 90 to 120 seconds, for up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week. By the end of September, the estimate residents presented was more frequent. A video they showed at a community meeting claimed a scream every 20 to 40 seconds, which they put at about 1,000 a day. These are residents' own counts, not independent acoustic measurements. Still, both estimates come from the same neighborhood and are only weeks apart, and the second is several times higher than the first.

Studio City is part of this too. On September 6, the Studio City Neighborhood Council voted to support GTLNC. It said the noise is affecting residential areas in both Toluca Lake and Studio City, and it sent a resolution to Los Angeles County supervisors, City Councilmembers and Universal executives asking for immediate mitigation.

A timeline that kept moving

Several overlapping start dates explain why the noise can feel like it has been going on longer than the ride has officially been open:

1. June 29, 2026: testing with riders begins, according to GTLNC.
2. July 27, 2026: guests start riding during what the LA Times called an unofficial soft opening. Operation during these "technical rehearsals" was intermittent and could close at any time.
3. Mid-August: CD2 Councilmember Adrin Nazarian announces two more sound barriers. Universal told KTLA they would be finished in early September.
4. September 3: KTLA reported that rehearsal hours of 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. would run until this date, when hours would extend to 10 p.m. for Halloween Horror Nights.
5. September 16, 2026: the coaster opens for daily operation.
6. September 30, 2026: more than 350 people attend a closed-press community meeting on Universal's Stage 7.

What has been promised, and how firm each promise is

Each remedy on the table now tries to reduce the screaming without stopping the riders. That's why each one has a limit.

The temporary barrier comes from the September 30 meeting. According to one attendee, Universal executives said it would add more than 1,900 square feet of sound-absorbing material, with installation planned for the next day. If it proves effective, the park would need to apply for permits to make it permanent. It would add to the original barrier, which Deadline describes as longer than two fields.

The OC Register reported on October 2 that Universal installed sound barriers in August. It didn't say whether that meant the two Nazarian announced or give a completion date. None of the coverage so far includes resident accounts or before-and-after measurements showing that any barrier has made a difference.

The change in hours is real but small. Universal agreed not to run the coaster from 8 to 9 a.m. through the end of the year. The park opens at 8 a.m. on 13 days in October, mostly Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That means the quiet hour applies on about 13 mornings this month. Deadline noted the park sometimes opens as early as 7 a.m. for early access and stays open as late as 10 p.m. in October.

Two of the most direct options are off the table. Executives said they had considered helmets with face shields and fully enclosed cars. They ruled out helmets because riders might not secure them correctly, and enclosed cars because they would get in the way of emergency evacuations. The park may still adjust the cars, which already turn away from Toluca Lake at key scream moments.

Measuring the sound

The open question is how the noise is measured. Universal's compliance statement and residents' recordings are two different kinds of evidence, and the neighborhood councils are asking for something in between.

The LA Times reported that Universal has six designated noise-monitoring sites, and at least three of them are in or near the Valley Springs Lane area of Toluca Lake. The Specific Plan also requires an acoustical consultant hired by the County to do unannounced 24-hour monitoring every quarter. GTLNC's resolution asks the County to release its monitoring records and to confirm whether independent, unannounced measurements have been taken while riders were on the coaster. The resolution doesn't say whether that testing has happened. Since the ride was quiet without passengers, the request for measurements with riders aboard goes to the heart of the dispute.

Universal told neighbors in August that the added barriers would reduce noise but that the ride might still be audible. Its most recent statement keeps that open:

"We have invested substantially in additional sound-reduction measures based on community feedback and remain committed to exploring what more we can do."

What to watch this fall

Several dates and contacts are worth knowing for anyone living below the lot:

• Community hotline: Universal takes noise reports at (818) 622-2995 or [email protected].
• November and December hours: Universal is expected to post November hours in mid-October and December hours in mid-November. Those schedules will show how many 8 a.m. openings the quiet hour covers.
• The temporary barrier's permit: whether Universal applies to make it permanent will be the clearest public sign of whether it worked.
• County monitoring records: GTLNC's request for measurements taken with riders aboard is still open.
• January 2027 and beyond: the 8 to 9 a.m. pause is scheduled to end with 2026, and nothing in the coverage so far says what replaces it.

If you live in Toluca Lake or the Studio City streets near Universal and want to talk about how the coaster noise is affecting your block, Tammy Jerome is following the barrier permits, the hotline and the County monitoring as they develop. Let's connect.