How can I create a keyboard shortcut to access a specific folder in Finder?
One option would be to create an Automator service and assign it a shortcut in the Keyboard preferences.



tell application "Finder"
    reopen
    activate
    set p to (system attribute "HOME") &amp; "/Downloads/"
    set target of Finder window 1 to POSIX file p
end tell


You could also save the script to ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder/ with AppleScript Editor and use FastScripts to assign the shortcut.