I’ll grant that the perspectives and experiences are different when walking versus running or riding, but they are not exactly without similarities and a sense of feeling good, or well being. This essay at Medium’s Human Parts claims “Walking is medicine — it cures anxiety, sparks inspiration, and brings us back to ourselves… the beauty is in the walking, in the journey itself… as you have escaped the walls, the squares, the eternity of sitting, of stagnation; now you are moving…” Perhaps getting away brings us back, or makes us feel better and more like the person inside the shell we want to feel like, in large part because your brain on trails feels better, or feels good chemistry.
Related to exercise, is lateral acceleration the real reason movement feels good? In the video Slomo below “there is a neurological explanation for this…”:
I can’t say moving in a car, a slow one or at cruise control anyway, is the same, or feels as good as moving by other means, at least not most of the time after driving for 30 years. Acceleration and deceleration are different perhaps, as they are a change in speed, but I still can’t say stop and go traffic is anything but dreadful. Regardless, moving makes me feel good, and I intend to keep keeping on, even if I have to sit in traffic now and then to do it.