Philly’s seven-month-long experiment with street sweeping proved that regular city cleanings reduced litter on the city’s notoriously filthy streets. With those findings in mind, the program will expand in 2020, city officials said Thursday.

A city report released that same day found the strategy was generally effective at reducing litter in six neighborhood testing zones when compared to nearby areas not included in the program.

Philadelphia Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams said that, as a result, the pilot would very likely be expanded in 2020 –– but with less emphasis on a controversial method that involved leaf blowers and more on traditional sweeping methods.

“It took too long. We weren’t able to stay on a coordinated schedule,” said William of the blower method. “Especially in areas where we had high concentrations of litter.”

Six test areas will roughly double in size and, beginning July 1, will start pushing residents to move their cars ahead of morning and midday sweeping hours or face fines.

“We need the cars to move to do a thorough and efficient job to get through an area,” Williams said.

Philadelphia is the only major city lacking a major street cleaning program, a product of funding cuts and resident backlash over parking tickets issued on sweeping days of yore.

But, last year, Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration announced a $2.3 million Streets Department pilot program designed to experiment with alternative street cleaning strategies. These included a novel strategy of using leaf-blower crews to dislodge trash from beneath parked cars, bypassing parking regulations used in many municipal street sweeping programs.

That will change in the second phase of the pilot, expected to start April 1 and end by December. The city will begin a month-long “warning period” for drivers ahead of ticketing beginning July 1. In August, the city will issue $31 tickets to drivers who do not move their cars before sweeping. By the end of the pilot, all drivers in testing zones will be expected to move cars on sweeping days.

Kenney has said his ultimate objective is to have citywide street-sweeping in place by the end of his term.

“It’ll be in every neighborhood and you are going to have to move your car. If you don’t want to move your car — tough,” Kenney told reporters after his inauguration ceremony in January.

The six original testing zones studied in the new report were chosen for their “relatively high rate of litter” after Mayor Kenney announced a major multi-year funding boost for sanitation services, which had long languished in the city budget. The areas covered sections of West Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia, Kensington, Strawberry Mansion, Logan and South Philadelphia.