I only got dropped off if it was raining (that can be quite severe and thunderstorms are common) or if I was so late that I couldn't make it. In the latter case, I walked home.
Four years later, my school was miles away. No choice but dropoff lines (private school, no bus service). Had I been in the public school system, I would have needed to bus or be dropped off for junior high (that year and two after it, ~4 mi/6.5 km away traveling on and crossing multiple arterial roads without bike lanes or sidewalks for most of the way), but could have walked/ridden/driven myself to high school.
A lot of it will look something like this [1].
In England, it's actually somewhat unusual to have any space between two homes. Semi and fully detached homes command a fairly high price.
Roads were also not built for cars, so they tend to be much narrower than what you'd find in the US. All that means you'll find a much higher population density. You can even find a bunch of cobblestone roads without much effort.
I'd also say that cities are FAR more walkable than they are in the US. It's almost the reverse of what it is here, it can be easier to walk to the store than drive simply because there's a billion little pathways that lead everywhere.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraced_houses_in_the_United_...
https://whitearkitekter.com/news/kvarter-7-the-starting-poin...
However, what is the average size of a graduating class from secondary education? My high school class was quite small, just under 100, but it was an oddity and classes before and since were more like 120-150. Even in elementary school we had around 75 in each year. It is not unusual in larger metro areas in the US to have over 1000 students in each graduating class.
It's close enough for a 5-year-old to cycle, which is my point.